Saturday Night Live Spoofs Trump’s Trip to Ohio to Address Train Derailment
SNL gave Trump’s visit to East Palestine the parody treatment in the cold open sketch.
The newest episode of Saturday Night Live took aim at former president Donald Trump visiting East Palestine, Ohio, following the train derailment that has heavily affected the area. In the cold open segment, James Austin Johnson portrayed Trump to imagine how his visit with the East Palestine residents went down. You can watch the video below, courtesy of Saturday Night Live on YouTube.
“Hello, everyone, it’s wonderful to be here in the town of East Palestine, not a great name,” Trump says in the parody. “But I had to come here and see these wonderful people who have been abandoned by Biden. He’s on spring break in Ukraine with his friend Zelensky in the T-shirt, very disrespectful!”
The former president goes on to dole out some advice to the people of East Palestine. He refers to speaking with one man in the area whose crops had been contaminated due to the chemical spill, with some words of advice that don’t seem to understand the problem.
“A farmer came up to me, big fella, and he said, ‘Sir, we have nothing to eat because our dirt is poison,'” Trump explains. “And I said, ‘Well, what are you doing eating the dirt? Don’t eat the dirt, folks. Don’t eat the dirt. You should be eating the cold McDonald’s I brought you, and the bottled water and Trump Ice! I’ll be honest, I just put my sticker on some Dasani.”
Johnson’s Trump went on to take some digs at Rihanna’s Super Bowl halftime performance before blaming Pete Buttigieg for the train derailment. Before heading out, he also brings out Emily Kohrs (Chloe Fineman), the “foreman of the Georgia grand jury investigating me.”
“She’s an odd duck but we like here,” Trump notes. “She’s either seven or forty, we can’t tell… she looks like Haley Joel Osment, and she’s my best friend.”
Woody Harrelson Joined the Five-Timers Club
The new episode was hosted by Woody Harrelson, marking his fifth time serving as host of SNL and joining the elite Five-Timers Club. Fellow club member Scarlett Johansson could be seen at the end of the night to help induct him. A Five-Timers Club jacket was also given to musical guest Jack White, as it marked his fifth time serving in that capacity.
SNL will return on March 4 with host Travis Kelce and musical guest Kelsea Ballerini. They’ll be followed by Jenna Ortega and The 1975 on March 11. You can stream the full episode featuring Harrison, along with past episodes of SNL, on Peacock.