“Saturday Night Live” has come full circle.
“SNL” brought back Alec Baldwin’s President Donald Trump as well as many of the characters from his White House to open its season finale Saturday night.
The NBC variety show referenced itself by having Baldwin’s Trump, as well as Kate McKinnon’s Kellyanne Conway, Scarlett Johansson’s Ivanka Trump and others in the administration sing Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” at a piano to open the show.
This was reminiscent of how the show opened its first post-election episode with McKinnon as Hillary Clinton playing the song at the piano.
“I’m not giving up,” Baldwin’s Trump said, echoing McKinnon’s words from November. “Because I didn’t do anything wrong.”
Following the cold open, SNL kept things political with its host, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, announcing that the rumors are true: He’s running for president in 2020.
“Now, in the past I would have never considered running for president. I mean I didn’t think I was qualified at all,” Johnson said during his opening monologue. “But now I’m actually worried I’m too qualified.”
Johnson was also joined on stage by his 2020 running mate, Tom Hanks.
“The truth is, America needs us,” Hanks said. “No one seems to agree on anything anymore, except for two things …”
“Pizza and us,” Johnson responded.
The two would eventually say they were joking, leading Johnson to say that “when it comes to politics, we need more poise and less noise. Americans deserve strong capable leaders. Leaders who care about this country and care about its people.”
After these words, Hanks looked at Johnson surprised.
“Dwayne, that kind of sounds like you and me,” Hanks said. “We got to do it!”
This led to a giant banner reading “Johnson/Hanks 2020” to fall from the sky with confetti and “Hail to the Chief” playing in the background.