James Austin Johnson’s Trump Cut From This Week’s SNL Cold Open

Saturday Night Live featured yet another cameo-packed political cold open this weekend, with Maya Rudolph, Andy Samberg, Dana Carvey, and Jim Gaffigan all reprising their roles as the primary players on the Democratic ticket alongside Bowen Yang‘s J.D. Vance.

The only major player from last week’s cold-open who didn’t return was James Austin Johnson‘s Donald Trump.

But according to our spies, that wasn’t always the plan. Multiple audience members attending this weekend’s dress rehearsal tell us that Johnson appeared in the sketch at dress, only to be cut from the live show.

His appearance was reportedly brief to begin with.

The dress rehearsal version of the sketch offered a parallel to Rudolph’s Harris and Samberg’s Emhoff watching the debate as it cut to Trump also at home watching TV.

“This guy is doing great!” Johnson’s Trump said, before it was revealed that he’s not watching the debate, he’s watching an episode of American Ninja Warrior.

There was some question ahead of the start of Season 50 whether James Austin Johnson would be playing Trump at all this season after Lorne Michaels told The Hollywood Reporter that the show was re-inventing its Donald Trump.

Adding to the intrigue, one-time SNL host Shane Gillis told a crowd last weekend that he’d been offered a season-long role as the show’s Trump but turned it down.

That’s not to say that we should read too much into the fact that Johnson’s Trump didn’t make the show’s final cut this week. Sketches are frequently re-worked (or cut from the show altogether) between dress and live based on timing and/or how they play in front of an audience.

(For example, the dress rehearsal version of this weekend’s “Coach Alan” sketch featured Kenan Thompson alongside Andrew Dismukes and Nate Bargatze as a third coach, who delivers his own inane halftime speech to the assembled football players.)

Still, for a show that’s not exactly shown restraint when it comes to dragging Donald Trump in recent years, the decision to cut even a fleeting glimpse of the former president is a curious one.

1 Comment

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  1. Tom Roche says:

    I’m curious what admonishments are made to the 9pm dress rehearsal audience. Seems there is never a leak. Are cell phones held until 1130?