Alec Baldwin Perfectly Skewers Trump Corruption On SNL

Alec Baldwin reprised his classic role as an unhinged Donald Trump on Saturday Night Live (SNL) last night and it was one of his finest performances.

Whenever scandals in the White House and global events get too stressful our president finds an outlet by going on rants that make him feel better.  This happened last week at a retreat in West Virginia that was supposed to be about tax reform, and happened again during a White House meeting with the Baltic States.

Baldwin began Saturday Night’s show with a press conference addressing some of his administration’s biggest issues, such as his relationship with Putin.  “No one has been tougher on Russia than I have, and that’s including Hitler,” Baldwin (as Trump) said, capturing the inflated ego and narcissism of the president perfectly.  

After that he fell asleep as another world leader spoke — after all, Trump cares only about himself. Later he took questions from the press about such hot topics as the Stormy Daniels affair and his attempts to trash Amazon and its founder Jeff Bezos, the richest man in the world.

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One of the funnier segments of the opening skit address the leaks from the White House that Trump congratulated Putin even though his instructions said not to do that after the Russian President won an election that was fixed from the beginning.

“Before I turn over to these freakshows here, I just want to read a prepared statement to prove that I can read,” Baldwin’s Trump said. “Do not congratulate Putin.”

He then said: “Time to freestyle. First of all, a big congratulations to Vladimir Putin … even though no one’s been tougher on Russia than I am, including Hitler.”  He then said he wanted to finish the press briefing quickly since he’s “got a lot of trade wars to escalate here.”

Concerning Bezos, we found out why Trump hates him so much: “He’s way richer than me and he admits to being bald so I feel threatened on two levels.”

What’s amazing is how Baldwin’s portrayal of Trump is so spot-on that everything he says could really be true.  A case in point is the way he closed the skit.

“I don’t care about America,” Baldwin as Trump said. “This whole presidency is a four- year cash grab and admitting that will probably get me four more years.”

As we enter our second year of the most corrupt presidency in American history, these words transcend humor and take us into the realm of social commentary mixed with satire.  Unfortunately they are also true and serve as a warning that we must end this farce of a presidency as quickly as possible.  

Leo Vidal

I am a lifelong Democrat with a passion for social justice and progressive issues. I have degrees in writing, economics and law from the University of Iowa.