After being criticized by the President-elect as “mean-spirited” and “not very good,” Alec Baldwin and his impersonation of Donald Trump returned on “Saturday Night Live” this week.
So far, Trump has not tweeted his take on the latest SNL episode as he did two weeks ago.
In the first sketch of the show, Baldwin as Donald Trump gets a surprise holiday visitor who enters through the chimney. It turns out to be a shirtless Russian President Vladimir Putin who is carrying a sack full of presents.
“Mr. Trump, we are here because your CIA is saying that we Russians tried to make you win election,” says Putin, played by Beck Bennett.
“I know, all lies, made up by some very bitter people who need to move on!” Baldwin as Trump replies.
“So you trust me more than American CIA?” Bennett’s Putin asks.
“All I know is I won!” Baldwin’s Trump replies.
The sketch lampooned the situation following an assessment by the US intelligence over Russia’s election-related hacking that suggested Putin was involved.
During the sketch, Putin repeatedly flatters Trump and leaves a gift of an elf, a surveillance device, which he places next to the Internet router.
Then, Rex Tillerson, the CEO of ExxonMobil and Donald Trump’s pick to be secretary of state, walks into the office. Played by John Goodman, he warmly greets Putin as “Putty!”
The oil executive and the Russian president exchange an exuberant handshake, and proceed to make business plans regarding what they hope to do after sanctions are lifted on Russia.
Meanwhile, Trump stands by and riffs on whether they’ll “destroy Vanity Fair” and brags about knowing Kanye West.