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With Easter approaching, it seemed appropriate for \u201cSaturday Night Live\u201d to resurrect a favorite bit: a scene from the Bible<\/a> that is interrupted by a comic monologue from James Austin Johnson playing President Trump.<\/p>\n This weekend\u2019s broadcast, hosted by Jon Hamm and featuring the musical guest Lizzo, began with what looked like a straightforward re-enactment of the Cleansing of the Temple, with the role of Jesus played by Mikey Day. \u201cThis will not stand,\u201d Day said, overturning a money changer\u2019s table. \u201cI will rid this place of all its money.\u201d<\/p>\n The action paused so that Johnson could enter as Trump. \u201cRemind you of anyone?\u201d he asked. \u201cWow. I also got rid of money last week. But instead of one temple, I did whole country. Maybe even the globe. The money\u2019s gone.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Johnson continued: \u201cHi, it\u2019s me, your favorite president, Donald Jesus Trump, comparing myself to the son of God once again. You know, many people are even calling me the messiah, because of the mess-I-ah made out of the economy.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The financial turmoil, he said, was \u201call because of my beautiful tariffs \u2014 they\u2019re so beautiful. They were working so well that I had to stop them.\u201d<\/p>\n Johnson said that the stock market \u201cdid a Jesus \u2014 it died.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThen on the third day, it was risen,\u201d he continued. \u201cAnd then on the fourth day it died again, possibly never to return, just like Jesus. Where the heck is that guy? Come back, get me out of this. And Jesus Christ is a name we\u2019ve been saying a lot lately. We\u2019re saying it a lot. We look at our 401(k) and say, \u2018Jesus Christ, where did it all go?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Johnson threw in a few topical jokes about Passover and Easter, saying, \u201cWe love hunting for eggs, just like everyone\u2019s doing in the grocery store right now, because they cost a trillion, billion dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n Finally, Johnson asked that we \u201cremember the lesson that Mister Jesus taught us when he went buck wild on those money changers: We must never mix religion with commerce.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n He added, \u201cYou can read all about that in my Trump Bible. Now made in America, so it costs $1,300 and it falls apart even faster.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n It hasn\u2019t been a pleasant time to be watching TV news unless you\u2019re a fan of large numbers preceded by minus signs, arrows pointed emphatically downward and the color red. If you\u2019d prefer a news program that isn\u2019t any more soothing but at least tries to commiserate with you while apprising you of current events, there\u2019s CTCBC, the Check-to-Check Business Channel, whose anchors (Hamm and Nwodim, equipped with their fact-packed chyron) will keep you caught up with the financial bellwethers that really matter, like the price of boxed mac and cheese, or the increase in the cost of candy bars (\u201cfrom, \u2018Sure, baby,\u2019 to \u2018Put that back\u201d).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Unlike, say, everyone on the internet, \u201cS.N.L.\u201d had largely avoided talking about the latest season of \u201cThe White Lotus,\u201d the much-dissected HBO anthology series<\/a>. But this weekend, \u201cS.N.L.\u201d put all the material it had been stockpiling into a big noisy blender, mixed it with some lorazepam<\/a> and came up with \u201cThe White POTUS,\u201d a filmed segment that was a satire of both the show and U.S. politics.<\/p>\n Johnson, once again, was President Trump \u2014 this time, a silent stand-in for Timothy Ratliff, the shady financier played by Jason Isaacs<\/a>. Chloe Fineman was the first lady, Melania Trump, who nonetheless spoke with the North Carolina accent of Parker Posey\u2019s Victoria Ratliff: \u201cCan you imagine how awful it would be if America lost all its money and no one in the world respected us anymore?\u201d she asked. (A reaction shot showed the Newsmax headline Johnson had been surreptitiously scanning on his phone: \u201cTrump Triggers Worldwide Recession.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Watch for return appearances from \u201cS.N.L.\u201d alums Alex Moffat (as Eric Trump) and Beck Bennett (as Vladimir Putin, the Russian president); Scarlett Johansson, the \u201cS.N.L.\u201d spouse and frequent host (as Ivanka Trump); \u201cWhite Lotus\u201d cast member Jon Gries (as Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick); and at least another week\u2019s worth of \u201cWhite Lotus\u201d discourse online as a result.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Over at the Weekend Update desk, the anchors Colin Jost and Michael Che continued to riff on the economic fallout of the tariffs imposed by President Trump.<\/p>\n Jost began:<\/p>\n This week, President Trump tried to rescue the economy from the disastrous policies of whoever was president last week. On Wednesday, Trump announced he was pausing most tariffs for 90 days. Now 90 days may not seem like a long time, but remember Trump has only been president for 82 days and it already feels like a goddamn decade. Just hours before Trump paused the tariffs, he tried to calm investors by posting, \u201cBE COOL! Everything is going to work out well.\u201d Be cool? This is the global economy. It\u2019s not like we got too high and we\u2019re trying to get through dinner with our parents. The CEOs of many tech companies who supported President Trump\u2019s campaign have said they were surprised by all of his tariffs. Well, yeah, he hardly ever mentioned them. [He played a clip montage of President Trump talking about tariffs during the 2024 campaign.] It\u2019s like listening to Bubba Gump talk about shrimp.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Che continued:<\/p>\n Trump responded to the fallout from his tariffs, saying sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something. Yeah, but this feels like we took a whole bottle of medicine with a glass of vodka and laid in a warm bath. It was reported that Elon Musk personally appealed to President Trump to stop his tariff plan. And it worked! The stock market went up, like this: [He showed a photo of Musk making a hand gesture<\/a> that has been compared to the Nazi salute, and imitated the gesture.]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Heard any good jokes about the economy lately? Well, for those who could handle even more, Bowen Yang was on hand as his character Chen Biao, a Chinese trade minister who had plenty of sassy thoughts about the growing trade war between his country and the United States, \u201cI\u2019m just wondering, which side is more willing to endure hardship for the glory of their nation?\u201d Yang asked. \u201cThe one that\u2019s been around for thousands of years? Or the one that\u2019s sending Katy Perry to space?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nNews you can use of the week<\/h2>\n
\u2018White Lotus\u2019 parody of the week<\/h2>\n
Weekend Update jokes of the week<\/h2>\n
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Weekend Update desk segment of the week<\/h2>\n