Donald Trump tweeted early Friday that Alec Baldwin’s impersonation of him on “Saturday Night Live” is an “agony” compared to Darrell Hammond’s. But he’s not the only one who was disappointed when the NBC sketch show changed performers for the role.
In a 2017 Washington Post profile, Hammond detailed his reaction to executive producer Lorne Michaels’s decision that Baldwin should play the then-presidential candidate.
“I just started crying,” said Hammond, who stepped away as a regular “SNL” cast member in 2009. “In front of everyone. I couldn’t believe it. I was in shock, and I stayed in shock for a long time. Everything wiped out. The brand, me, what I do. Corporate appearances canceled. It was a hell of a shock, and all of it was apparent to me in one breath. ‘That ends me.’”
At the time, Michaels explained the decision by saying he needed a new person to portray the character Trump had become on the campaign trail. Baldwin’s pouting, blow-hard Trump became a huge success and led to one of “SNL’s” buzziest seasons in years.
But Trump himself has repeatedly voiced displeasure at the unflattering portrayal, including Friday’s early morning tweet.
“Alec Baldwin, whose dying mediocre career was saved by his terrible impersonation of me on SNL, now says playing me was agony,” the president wrote, twenty minutes after deleting a similar tweet riddled with typos. “Alec, it was agony for those who were forced to watch. Bring back Darrell Hammond, funnier and a far greater talent!”
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/969529668234829825?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet
However, even if “Saturday Night Live” were to make the unlikely capitulation to the president, it seems like Baldwin would certainly take steps to maintain his role.
“I’d like to hang in there for the impeachment hearings, the resignation speech, the farewell helicopter ride to Mara-A-Lago,” Baldwin tweeted on Friday. “You know. The Good Stuff. That we’ve all been waiting for.”