“Weekend Update” wasted no time jumping right into Donald Trump’s arraignment in Manhattan on this week’s episode of NBC’s “Saturday Night Live,” with co-host Colin Jost joking that he agrees with cries of foul play within its proceedings.
“Even the courtroom sketch artist seems to hate him,” Jost said of Trump. “When he showed up, I thought he looked perfectly nice. He had blended his foundation, he had stapled down his hair. But the guy still drew him like the Mud Monster from ‘Scooby-Doo.’”
The weekly segment began with Jost touching on Wall Street Journal journalist Evan Gershkovich, whose arrest in Russia under charges of espionage has been met with global outcry.
“The Wall Street Journal is calling on Russia to release one of their journalists who was arrested on espionage charges — and I might have the perfect idea for a prisoner swap,” Jost said, calling up a photo of Trump on the upper left of the screen.
He then made the quick pivot to Tuesday’s arrest and arraignment and the responses we’ve seen in the ensuing days.
“Former President Trump was arraigned on Tuesday, and a photographer released this photo of Trump in the courtroom,” Jost said, showcasing an image TheWrap itself has used in its trial coverage. He compared the image to the O.J. Simpson murder trial of the mid ’90s. “I don’t like that he’s flanked by an O.J.-amount of lawyers, because that tells me that he’s definitely guilty and that he’s definitely getting away with it.”
“Weekend Update” co-host Michael Che also took a few jabs at the former president.
“After his arraignment, Donald Trump spoke to supporters at Mar-a-Lago and said that there’s a ‘very dark cloud over our beloved country’ — which is also what he used to call Obama,” Che joked, turning his attention to the Trump daughters’ respective responses to their father’s legal troubles.
“Insiders are saying that since Donald Trump’s indictment, his daughter Ivanka has been absent, and his other daughter, Tiffany, is trying to take her place by his side — just as soon as she gets through security.”
Watch those jokes and more in the “Weekend Update” video above.