Donald Trump Floats Hannibal Lecter As Possible VP Pick In Searing 'SNL' Open
“Saturday Night Live” poked fun at the circus surrounding Donald Trump’s vice presidential pick during the cold open of this weekend’s season finale.
James Austin Johnson was in top form as he tacked on his Trump wig to address people outside of the Manhattan courthouse, where the former president’s criminal trial is currently taking place.
“I don’t like being in court because they say very mean things about me while I am trying to sleep,” he sneered, a nod to reports that Trump has been snoozing during proceedings.
After some hemming and hawing about the trial and the upcoming November elections, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee turned his attention to his potential picks for vice president.
“I have invited a few names from my short bus ― I mean, my short list ― to come to court and do a little dance for me,” he told crowds, tipping his hat to the team of Republican politicians who showed up to support him in court last week.
“They’re supposed to be running the country, but instead they’re sitting in porn court hoping I’ll smile at them,” Johnson’s Trump said, calling the whole affair “really sad.”
The skit featured cameos from Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), played by Devon Walker, and Heidi Gardner as South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R), who appeared holding a “real gun” to a plush dog’s head, a reference to the widely publicized account of killing her pet puppy, Cricket.
But Trump saved his “favorite choice” for last, introducing a man he truly “can’t stop talking about”: the fictional cannibalistic serial killer Hannibal Lecter.
Wheeled out on a stretcher wearing his signature mask and a straitjacket, Lecter (played by Michael Longfellow) could only offer a diabolical stare while Trump talked him up.
“I keep calling him ‘late and great’ even though he’s not dead, he’s not great, and he’s not real,” Trump quipped. “But I think he would really scare everybody at the border.”
Deciding he was done with the “Silence of the Lambs” character, Johnson’s Trump dismissed Lecter, saying he was giving off “[Mike] Pence vibes” ― a dig at the former governor of Indiana who went from Trump’s VP to one of his staunchest critics.
Before signing off, the fictionalized former president promised a “summer of Trump,” taking a second to hawk his Trump Torahs and promote a seasonal version of Jan. 6.
“You see all those guys back at the Capitol, but this time, in shorts!” Johnson’s Trump crowed.
“Finally, just remember: If you’re tired about hearing all of my trials, all you gotta do is vote for me, and it’ll all go away,” he went on, before introducing the show with its iconic tagline.
While Johnson’s version of Trump floated several VP ideas in the sketch, the real-life politician still seems to be weighing his options.
Still, that didn’t stop the Trump camp from agreeing to a vice presidential debate against President Joe Biden’s second-in-command, Vice President Kamala Harris, for some time this summer.
Watch the full “SNL” sketch above.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story identified Tim Scott as a U.S. representative. He is a senator.