Season 43 of “Saturday Night Live” began much as the last season ended — with Alec Baldwin reprising his role as Donald Trump, much to “SNL” fans’ delight.
Riffing on Trump’s recent real-life spat with San Juan mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz, Baldwin’s Trump returned from a golf outing to meet with Aidy Bryant’s Sarah Huckabee Sanders. You can watch the video of the sketch above.
“Sometimes when you’re president you have to make sacrifices, so I skipped the back nine,” Trump said as he arrived in the Oval Office. Sanders primed Trump for the call with Cruz, played by Melissa Villasenor.
“I was expecting this phone call. Sure she wants to tell me what a great job I’m doing,” Trump said.
Cruz’s call, of course, wasn’t quite what Trump expected, as she asked for the federal government to send aid to the island in the wake of Hurricane Maria.
“You should have paid your bills,” Trump expalined. “FEMA takes a few days unless you get FEMA Prime.”
Villasenor’s Cruz tried desperately to convince Trump to send aid sooner than “Wednesday,” as he promised.
“You do know we’re a US territory, don’t you?” Cruz asked a flabbergasted Trump.
“I mean I do but not many people know that, no,” he returned.
“We just need help, please,” Cruz continued before Baldwin’s Trump hung up.
“Wow. That woman was so nasty,” Trump lamented.
Next Baldwin’s Trump said he’d be “shaking things up,” and called for Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Kate McKinnon reprised her role as the diminutive attorney general, rising up from a hidden place behind Trump’s desk as Sanders went to look for him.
When Trump asked how Sessions got to the Oval Office so fast, McKinnon’s Sessions told him, “I live in the grandfather clock out in the hall. I made friends with some mice. They tell me secrets.”
“You’ve been with me since the beginning and you know how I value loyalty,” Trump told Sessions. “But you went against me on the DACA thing and you wouldn’t fire James Comey when I wanted you to.”
“Yes, I’ve been a bad bad boy,” Sessions said, offering to get “the belt” to be punished.
But Trump said Sessions’ punishment would be something else entirely.
“No please sir, don’t tweet on me!” Sessions cried.
“Oh it’s so hard when you’re so damn cute,” Baldwin’s Trump replied. “Come over here to daddy.”
Trump then pulled Sessions onto his lap, and Sessions offered him a kiss.
The sketch ended with Alex Moffat arriving as Democrat Chuck Schumer, ready to join Trump to get a New York slice.
Baldwin’s return to “SNL” comes off his win at the 69th Prime Time Emmys earlier this month. He took home the statue for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series for playing Trump throughout Season 42, and started off his acceptance speech with a joke: “I suppose I should say at long last Mr. President here is your Emmy,” he said to applause.
The opener was a callback from host Stephen Colbert’s monologue earlier in the night, which referenced that Trump had been nominated for multiple Emmys for “Celebrity Apprentice,” but had never won. According to Colbert, it’s a thing that might’ve changed some things.
“If he had won an Emmy, I bet he wouldn’t have run for President,” Colbert remarked. “So in a way this is all your fault.”