{"id":349739,"date":"2025-12-15T08:18:17","date_gmt":"2025-12-15T08:18:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/349739\/"},"modified":"2025-12-15T08:18:17","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T08:18:17","slug":"snl-cold-open-features-spot-on-trump-ordering-bomb-strike-on-santas-sleigh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/349739\/","title":{"rendered":"SNL cold open features \u2018spot on\u2019 Trump ordering bomb strike on Santa\u2019s sleigh"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Saturday Night Live has continued its hot streak of cold opens skewering President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

The newest episode kicked off with a sketch featuring James Austin Johnson as a medicated Trump taking a press conference aboard Air Force One, joined by breakout star Ashley Padilla <\/a>playing White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.<\/p>\n

Johnson\u2019s Trump lashed out at CNN\u2019s Kaitlan Collins<\/a>, addressed the newest pictures from Jeffrey Epstein\u2019s estate, <\/a>and acknowledged the U.S.\u2019s recent seizure of an oil tanker in Venezuela <\/a>before announcing to reporters that he was \u201ctargeting suspected drug planes.\u201d He then showed footage of Santa Claus\u2019s sleigh, complete with reindeer and sleigh bells ringing, being taken out by a drone strike.<\/p>\n

\u201cWas that Santa?\u201d one reporter asked, leading Trump<\/a> to fire back: \u201cNot anymore!\u201d<\/p>\n

The sketch ended with Padilla\u2019s Leavitt telling reporters that the president needed to rest after taking both Ambien and Adderall.<\/p>\n

\"JamesJames Austin Johnson played Donald Trump and Ashley Padilla played Karoline Leavitt on Saturday Night Live (NBC\/SNL)<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, it\u2019s true. I have to begin my pre-bedtime self-care ritual, putting a bandage on my hand and covering it with makeup, then adding more layers of bandage and makeup,\u201d Trump said. \u201cIt\u2019s a medical lasagna. Mamma mia! We should all be very worried about my health, I\u2019m very ill. Then I will brush my teeth before drifting off and dream about Karoline\u2019s mouth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Viewers were quick to praise Johnson\u2019s impression<\/a> of the president, which he has regularly shown off on the show since he was cast as a featured player in 2021. One social media use wrote on X, \u201cThat dude is spot on with his Trump impersonation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cJames Austin Johnson’s Trump is comedic genius, but it’s so indistinguishable from the real thing that I’m viscerally repulsed,\u201d one added. Another chimed in: \u201cHow has JAJ not received an Emmy for his portrayal of Trump yet? He’s incredible; more like Trump than Trump himself, lol.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last week\u2019s cold open skewered Trump for appearing to fall asleep at meetings<\/a> and teased his apparent bromance with Zohran Mamdani<\/a>, the mayor-elect of New York City.<\/p>\n

The December 13 episode was hosted by actor Josh O\u2019Connor in his debut on the comedy sketch show as he promoted his new movie, Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery. <\/a>Lily Allen was the episode\u2019s musical guest, marking her second appearance on the show. The episode was season 51\u2019s penultimate installment before its winter break, with next week\u2019s episode featuring Ariana Grande as the host and Cher as the musical guest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":349740,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[88,92],"class_list":{"0":"post-349739","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349739","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=349739"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349739\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/349740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=349739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=349739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=349739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}