Following a chaotic week on Wall Street and growing uncertainty in Washington, Saturday Night Live opened its latest episode with a comedic take rooted in scripture and satire.
The show kicked off with a parody of the biblical tale from Matthew 21:13, where Jesus famously flips the tables of money changers in the temple. Cast member Mikey Day took on the role of Jesus, but the scene quickly pivoted to James Austin Johnson’s recurring portrayal of former President Donald Trump, who entered the sketch with his signature bravado.
“It’s me, your favorite president, Donald Jesus Trump,” Johnson declared, playfully comparing himself to the son of God. “They’re even calling me the Messiah—because of the mess-I-ah made out of the economy. All thanks to my beautiful tariffs.”
The sketch mocked the rollercoaster ride of global markets in the wake of Trump’s trade policies. “The stock market did a Jesus,” Johnson’s Trump quipped. “It died, then on the third day, it rose again. And then it died again on the fourth day.”
He also jokingly promoted a faux product: the “Trump Bible,” now “made in America” for a whopping $1,300. “It falls apart even faster,” he boasted, poking fun at the manufacturing quality and high cost of U.S.-made goods under rising tariffs.
Jon Hamm hosted the episode, with music by Lizzo, who later made her own statement during her performance of “Still Bad” by wearing a black shirt emblazoned with the word “Tariffied” in bold red lettering.
The show didn’t stop there. Later in the episode, Johnson returned as Trump in a spoof titled The White Potus, a send-up of HBO’s hit series The White Lotus. In the sketch, Trump tried to hide a collapsing global economy from his vacationing family, drawing parallels to a storyline from the show’s third season where a father learns he is under federal investigation.
Saturday Night Live is currently in its 50th season, which is set to wrap on May 17.
