The partial federal shutdown provided the ingredients for a “Saturday Night Live” skit featuring “President Trump,” played by Alec Baldwin, as a contestant on “Deal or No Deal.”
“We decided to do this in the only format you could understand: a TV game show with women holding briefcases,” cracked host “Steve Harvey,” played by Kenan Thompson.
The cold opening finished with Mr. Baldwin’s Trump making a deal to end the shutdown in exchange for a suitcase held by a Clemson football player holding White Castle hamburgers, or “hamberders.”
“Oh, Steve, I haven’t eaten a hamberder in almost 15 minutes. I’m going to make that deal,” says the Trump character.
The incredulous host responds, “You’re ending the shutdown for a hamberder?”
Welcome to Deal or No Deal: Government Shutdown Edition. #SNL pic.twitter.com/Psfnd2Ipm9[1][2]
— Saturday Night Live - SNL (@nbcsnl) January 20, 2019[3]
The “hamberder” reference came from a typo in a Trump tweet last week describing his White House fast-food feast for the Clemson national-championship football team as including “over 1000 hamberders.”
In between, the sketch poked fun at House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi, depicting her as a vindictive power-broker, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who was mistaken by the Trump character for an “older Jewish woman,” and made turtle jokes about Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
“If the government’s shut down, you can’t do the State of the Union,” said the Pelosi character, played by Kate McKinnon. “It’s for security reasons, not because I’m vindictive or anything.”...