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Here's The 'SNL' Skit Trump Was So Annoyed By
Saturday Night Live is back at it again with the Donald Trump impressions, this time blasting the president-elect for his reported refusal to take security briefings. The cold open from the most recent episode featured references to things Trump actually did over the last few weeks and lots of fourth wall breaking, further indication that SNL isn't having a difficult time mining good material from the future president. Kate McKinnon reprised her hysterical impression of Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway, still suffering from the inner torture of knowing she helped elect Trump to the presidency. To put the cherry on top of the hilarious sketch, Alec Baldwin's Trump impression angered the real Trump, resulting in a hilarious Twitter exchange between the real and fake Trump.
Trump predictably lambasted the sketch on his Twitter account, as he has several times throughout the last year. "Just tried watching Saturday Night Live - unwatchable! Totally biased, not funny and the Baldwin impersonation just can't get any worse. Sad," wrote the president-elect late Saturday night, even before the end of the episode. Industry insiders disagree with Trump's review — prolific producer Greg Berlanti has already speculated that Baldwin will win an Emmy for his portrayal of Trump throughout SNL's 41st season.
Baldwin also took to Twitter to offer Trump an ingenious solution to stop the parody — by releasing his tax returns. Despite precedent and pressure, Trump still has yet to release his tax returns and there's no indication that he's going to any time soon. In fact, Trump may have figured out a way to get away with not releasing his financial documents throughout his presidency.
In his first post-election interview, Trump told 60 Minutes' Lesley Stahl that he won't take a salary as president. Trump actually can't not take the money because it's mandated by a federal statute, but he can make a big show of either donating it to charity, like President John F. Kennedy, or giving some or all of it back to the Treasury, like President Obama. That would at least partially release Trump from the pressure of publicly disclosing his financial information, because without payment from the federal government, there may be less public focus on Trump's finances.
If Baldwin's strategy works, it will obviously be a groundbreaking negotiation technique for the rest of Trump's time in office. Realistically, it's not going to happen, but that only means that America at least get compensated with four years of Baldwin's hilarious impression.
Image: Saturday Night Live/Youtube.com