Saturday Night Live took a swing at Donald Trump’s tariffs in its Easter-themed Cold Open, joking that the U.S. stock market “did a Jesus.”
The skit kicked off with a parody of the biblical “Cleansing of the Temple,” where Mikey Day’s Jesus vowed to purge Jerusalem’s temple of “all its money.”
Enter Trump—played by James Austin Johnson—declaring, “The money’s gone.”
“It’s me, your favorite president, Donald Jesus Trump, comparing myself to the son of God once again,” said Johnson’s Trump. “You know, many people are even calling me the Messiah because of the mess I uh made out of the economy.”
Trump’s character claimed the tariffs were so “effective” he had to pull the plug, saying Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney came begging for a deal.
“I said, let me cook, and then I burned dinner badly so we had to stop,” he said. “But now, everything is back exactly how it was, minus a few trillion dollars and a historic transfer of wealth from the middle class to my buddies.”
“Oh well. It’s true,” he added. “The stock market did a Jesus. It died, then on the third day it was risen, and then on the fourth day it died again, possibly never to return, just like Jesus.”
Behind the satire was a turbulent week on Wall Street. Stocks initially rallied midweek after Trump announced a pause on his sweeping tariffs, but gains evaporated after he doubled down on tariffs targeting China. All three major indexes slumped, wiping out most of the earlier optimism.
As Easter approached, Johnson’s Trump wrapped with one last jab: “Jesus Christ is the name we’ve been saying a lot lately. We’re saying it a lot. We look at our 401K and say ‘Jesus Christ where did it all go?’” he said. “I don’t know but we’re gonna fix that. Or not. We’ll see. Should be interesting.”
You can watch the full cold open via the clip above. Jon Hamm hosted SNL last night with musical guest Lizzo.
The post ‘Saturday Night Live’ Rips Trump’s Tariffs During Easter Cold Open: “Stock Market Did a Jesus” appeared first on Decider.
