Live from New York, It’s Controversy: Donald Trump’s Tumultuous History with Saturday Night Live”

When it comes to late-night satire, few people have generated more sketches, impressions, and scandals than Donald J. Trump. For Saturday Night Live (SNL), Trump has been a comedy goldmine and a lightning rod for controversy. His history with the venerable NBC sketch show is long, complicated, and unambiguously captivating—a maelstrom of politics, parody, and pop culture.Buy Affiliat product

Trump's past with SNL actually came before he became the 45th president of the United States. Trump hosted the show way back in 2004 when he was most famous with his The Apprentice franchise. Trump then was more of a flamboyant real estate tycoon and reality TV star than a political figure. His SNL stint was fairly low-key, with the expected cringe-inducing reading and self-loathing one finds with non-acting hosts. Although it did not leave an indelible mark on the histories of comedy, it did firmly establish Trump in the larger pop culture conversation.

Flash forward to 2015, and it was a whole different story. Trump, then a leading Republican presidential candidate, returned to host SNL. The decision was greeted with immediate backlash. Protesters flocked to the studio, citing his inflammatory rhetoric against minorities and immigrants. Critics argued that having him on the show legitimized his inflammatory language. But the show drew record ratings—one of the highest in years—showing that controversy and curiosity are still a potent mix for television.

Trump's visit in 2015 was strange, even for SNL. He participated in sketches making fun of his ego, his money, and his campaign speeches. In one of the sketches, "Live from New York, It's Donald Trump," there were various versions of Trump, Taran Killam and Darrell Hammond among them, who had appeared in the role previously. Yet, the majority of viewers believed that Trump's appearance was not self-conscious and that the jokes were watered down. SNL seemed hesitant to really skewer their guest, perhaps fearing to alienate viewers or advertisers.

Since Donald Trump's presidential win in 2016, Saturday Night Live has been one of his most outspoken comedic critics. Alec Baldwin impersonated Trump and delivered scathing parodies week in and week out. Baldwin's Trump—clumsy, egotistical, and absurd—became a staple of the show and pop culture phenomenon. His impression won him an Emmy and generated an unlimited amount of viral moments, ranging from the infamous "I hear by demand" mock press conference parody to parodies of Trump's pandemic-era press conferences.

Trump himself wasn't happy. He consistently lashed out at SNL on Twitter, calling the show "unwatchable," "biased," and "not funny." He even went so far as to say there might be some government action against the show, sparking eyebrows about freedom of speech and satire in a democracy. But the more he tweeted, the more people watched SNL—and the more people watched to see how SNL would respond.

The Trump-SNL dynamic exposed the evolving role of comedy in politics. What had previously been a late-night sideshow, shows like SNL are now battlefields for political commentary and public opinion. For some, the satire offered a cathartic release for a divisive and turbulent presidency. For others, it deepened political divisions and was part of a cycle of mockery and grievance.

It's telling that SNL has had a convoluted and lengthy past with political figures. From Gerald Ford to Chevy Chase to Tina Fey's Sarah Palin, the show has had a history of shaping the manner in which viewers perceive candidates and presidents. But with Trump, satire and fact often blurred together. His own quotes sometimes rivaled even the most ridiculous jokes the writers could come up with.

While Trump maintains the option of running for president again, it's guaranteed he'll be a fixture on SNL. Whether through new impressions or recycled sketches, the ex-president is simply too big a personality to ignore. And while he may not appreciate the jokes, his larger-than-life personality nearly begs for satire.

Ultimately, Donald Trump and Saturday Night Live represent two extremes of American culture: one obsessed with spectacle, and the other with commentary. Their uncomfortable waltz reflects the nation's own contradictions, in which comedy too frequently serves as a resistance—or, in your view, a provocation.

One thing for sure: where he's tweeting, impersonating, or raging on Twitter, Trump and SNL are bound together in a quintessentially American story—parts daft, laughable, and unmistakenly authentic.