(CNN) — After an unholy week on Wall Street and in Washington, “Saturday Night Live” kicked off its new episode with help from the Bible.
With Mikey Day portraying Jesus, the cast began the show by enacting a parody of Matthew 21:13, when Jesus cleansed the temple of merchants and money changers. James Austin Johnson then entered the cold open as modern-day President Donald Trump and drew a parallel between Jesus turning over a table in anger and the current global trade war.
“It’s me, your favorite president, Donald Jesus Trump. Comparing myself to the son of God once again,” Johnson as Trump quipped. “You know, many people are even calling me the Messiah because the mess-I-ah made out of the economy. All because of my beautiful tariffs. They’re so beautiful. They were working so well I had to stop them.”
“The stock market did a Jesus,” Johnson continued in character. “It died, then on the third day it was risen. Then on the fourth day it died again.”
After mentioning the loss of trillions of dollars as an aside and acknowledging the Lord’s name was likely invoked a lot this week on the floor of the stock exchange and as people viewed their shrunken 401(k)s, Johnson’s Trump made a not-so-subtle sales pitch.
“We must never mix religion with commerce,” he said. “You can read all about it in my Trump Bible. Now made in America, so it costs $1,300 and it falls apart even faster.”
“Your Friends & Neighbors” star Jon Hamm hosted the episode, with Lizzo as the musical guest.
Later in the night, Johnson returned as Trump in a sketch inspired by the just-completed third season of HBO’s “The White Lotus.” In it, Trump tried to keep news of a global economic collapse from his family, an idea inspired by the storyline involving Jason Isaacs, who played a father and businessman who learned during his vacation that he was under federal investigation.
The sketch was titled “The White Potus.”
Later, during her performance of “Still Bad,” singer Lizzo wore a black shirt with the word “Tariffied” written across it in red letters.
The 50th Season of “Saturday Night Live” will conclude on May 17.
The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2025 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
