“Saturday Night Live” experienced deja vu as Alec Baldwin as President Trump playing the piano and singing “Hallelujah” for the entirety of the cold open.
Starting out with just Baldwin singing, he was eventually joined by members of the Trump administration and family who have made appearances throughout the season: Kellyanne Conway (played by Kate McKinnon), Vice President Mike Pence (Beck Bennett), Eric Trump (Alex Moffat), Donald Trump Jr. (Mikey Day), Sarah Huckabee Sanders (Aidy Bryant), first lady Melania Trump (Cecily Strong) and Ivanka Trump (actress Scarlett Johansson). Steve Bannon was once again portrayed by someone dressed as Death.
“I’m not giving up because I didn’t do anything wrong, but I can’t speak for these people,” Baldwin said when the song was finished, before queuing the opening credits.
This week’s opener, capping the show’s most successful seasons in recent years, was a wink to the post-2016 election episode in which Kate McKinnon’s Hillary Clinton also spent the cold opening playing the piano and singing “Hallelujah,” but in a more solemn fashion.
