NBC late-night sketch comedy series "Saturday Night Live" usually calls upon Alec Baldwin to put on a suit, tie and combover wig to portray Donald Trump but in the Feb. 9 episode, regular cast member Kenan Thompson donned the look, so to speak, in "Them Trumps."
The sketch was a commercial for a fictional series that asked the question "What if Donald Trump was black?" In it, Thompson was "Darius Trump" while Leslie Jones was his wife Malika, Chris Redd was Darius Jr. and Ego Nwodim was L'evanka. Although the show has done this sketch before, it became especially timely for the way it looked at the State of the Union. The show opted not to take on Trump's actual address during the cold open.
"Can you persuade people who never liked you in the first place?" episode host and musical guest Halsey asked.
"Well, you know, I wouldn't worry about any of that," Thompson's Trump replied. "All I need is a mic and an audience and I'm good to go."
In the limo on the way to the address, Trump's children expressed concern over new allegations, including the "taxpayer funded golf trips with Puff Daddy" and "all the lawsuits that come out of Trump Perm Academy," as well as what happened with Russia and the fact that Robert Mueller was said to be "closing in."
"Why you trying to play me, hmm? I know how to deal with Mueller. I keep my white boys on a leash," he said. "This is America, and even though I'm black-"
"We're getting pulled over," Halsey said.
"Yeah I knew that was going to happen," he replied.
Later in the episode, the show also weighed in on the ethical discussion about blackface in the Virginia State Capitol, with Thompson asking various members if they had never worn blackface in the 1980s or 1990s and then proceeding to answer their inane questions about when it might be "OK" to do it. The answer? Not in the '80s and certainly not now. He ended up advising them just to delete their Facebook photo albums labeled "Halloween" and hope for the best.
The show also explored the newly elected "Women of Congress," such as Nancy "Madame Clap Back" Pelosi (played by Kate McKinnon) and Alexandria "I Say What I Meme" Ocasio-Cortez (played by Melissa Villasenor). The women gathered together to listen to a message from Donald Trump congratulating them and saying that since he has been president, more women have been elected to Congress than ever before, which of course enraged them that he was trying to take credit for their hard work.
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