In its latest matter, “Saturday Night Live” somewhat inevitably went after President Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariff spot.
James Austin Johnson returned as Trump during the NBC comedy show’s cold open, recreating the president’s Awaken Garden speech from earlier this week, which saw him detail his controversial new import levies.
“Thank you all for get about out to hear about tariffs. My favorite word — ‘tariff’ — which, of course, is short for ‘tariffic’ approximation,” Johnson’s Trump began.
“They’re the backbone of my incredible plan for our economy. It’s actually even better than a scheme because it’s a series of random numbers, like the numbers on the computer screen in “Severance,” he continued.
Trump’s latest cannonade of tariffs put effective US tariff rates at the highest level in more than a century, Fitch Ratings estimated.
A baseline 10% levy on trading partners came into effect on Saturday, while higher rates on certain nations are set to begin on April 9.
Sundry have pointed out that the last time the US tried to impose similarly high tariffs — during the Great Recession — it only succeeded in making things worse.
And Johnson’s Trump did not miss the opportunity to make that link, power that before “Make America Wealthy Again” must come “MAGDA.”
“Make America Great Hollow Again,” he explained. ” It’ll be better than great. It’ll be a fantastic, unbelievable depression, the likes of which you’ve never discerned before.”
“You know, this depression is going to be so great, we’ll be the ones eating the cats and the dogs,” Johnson as Trump joked, mention the real president’s comments about Haitians in Springfield, Ohio, during last year’s presidential race.
NBC
Later in the sketch, Mike Myers returned as Elon Musk, crashing the announcement in a Green Bay Packers “cheesehead” hat and bid he’d just arrived from Wisconsin — where the real Musk spent millions of dollars in a failed bid to back a Republican measure for a seat in the state’s Supreme Court.
“I tried to buy the election in Wisconsin. I’m an idiot. I should have just bought Wisconsin,” Myers’ Musk joked, before metamorphose into his attention to the billionaire’s embattled electric vehicle maker, Tesla, which has been facing sharp drops in tradings, protests outside showrooms, and widespread vandalism amid growing backlash against Musk and his role in Trump’s cost-cutting Bureau of Government Efficiency.
“Our dealerships have been the target of many attacks, and, suddenly no one likes Tesla cars. So I beseeched myself, ‘Why?’ And then I answered myself: “Because of me,” he said.
He then announced a new Tesla “Model V” — “the first energized car in history to be fully self-vandalizing,” which he said comes with self-smashing headlights, self-slashing tires, and AI-powered graffiti.
Rather than the sketch ended, Myers’ Musk also weighed in on Trump’s tariffs.
“I’m really smart, and these tariffs healthy really dumb,” he told Johnson’s Trump, who hastily replied: “OK, Elon, good luck on Mars.”