President Trump took and fielded calls from Tiger Woods, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and First Lady Melania Trump in tonight’s “Saturday Night Live” cold open, in which he warned his wife that her “insane” press conference about the Epstein Files might just make “everyone way more suspicious.”
“Who’s this? I don’t recognize the number,” James Austin Johnson’s Trump asked as his phone rang in the cold open. He was then surprised to discover the unknown caller was the first lady herself (played by Chloe Fineman). “You’re calling me? That’s not a good sign,” Johnson’s Trump joked, and things did not get any better when she told him she wanted to host a press conference denying all ties to Jeffrey Epstein.
“Uh, darling, I gotta admit, this sounds a little insane,” Johnson’s Trump told his wife, before asking, “Who are you? Me?” The first lady surprised the president again when she said she did not want to just stop with Epstein.
“I thought I could also say, ‘I, Melania Trump, in no way, helped out the Gilgo Beach serial killer.’ That way no one is suspicious,” Fineman’s Melania pitched, to which Johnson’s unsettled Trump replied, “Darling, I think that’s gonna make everyone way more suspicious.”
Undeterred, Fineman’s first lady alternatively offered, “What if I announce I barely partied with Diddy? Would that help?” You can watch tonight’s “SNL” cold open yourself below.
Trump makes some urgent phone calls from the Oval Office pic.twitter.com/UtBjQYrxyo
— Saturday Night Live (@nbcsnl) April 12, 2026
The cold open itself began with Johnson’s Trump drafting his widely condemned Easter Sunday threat to Iran with the help of White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt (Ashley Padilla). Even Leavitt ended up expressing some concern about him ending his Truth Social threat with, “Praise be to Allah.”
“It’s a sarcastic attack on the world’s largest religion. They famously have a great sense of humor about that kind of stuff,” Johnson’s Trump explained. In response, Padilla’s Leavitt told the president, “As your press secretary, this puts me in a tough position, sir.” Trump chose to comfort Leavitt by telling her that, like ousted former Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem and former U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, she’s doing a “terrific job.”
As Padilla’s Leavitt walked away, Johnson’s Trump broke the “SNL” fourth wall, telling viewers, “All three of those [women] were played by Ashley. It’s an interesting detail.” The president then called Tiger Woods (Kenan Thompson), who relayed that he had checked himself into a rehab facility in Switzerland after his recent DUI car crash and, much to Trump’s annoyance, did not have any time to golf soon.
Johnson’s Trump ended the “SNL” cold open by calling Colin Jost’s Pete Hegseth, who asked him if he was really negotiating with the Iranians. “Don’t worry about the negotiations. I just heard they’re going really, really bad,” the president said. “I sent in my secret weapon, [Vice President] JD Vance. After those Iranians spent 20 hours talking to JD, they said, ‘Please sir, just go back to bombing us.’”
“Keep up the good work,” Johnson’s Trump subsequently told Jost’s Hegseth. “If you think of a good reason why we went to war, could you let me know?”
