Saturday Night Live opened its latest episode with a familiar cold open parodying President Donald Trump, but critics said the show’s usual antics and “lighthearted” jabs were a “gigantic failure to read the room” given a deadly ICE shooting that occurred just hours before the broadcast.
“Sorry to be a buzzkill SNL, but maybe don’t do a lighthearted Trump cold open on the same day his goon squad murdered an American citizen in broad daylight,” wrote Democratic strategist Matt McDermott Saturday night in a social media post on X to their more than 91,000 followers. “It’s not funny anymore – people are dying.”
Earlier on Saturday, 37-year-old American citizen Alex Pretti was pepper sprayed, wrestled to the ground, beaten and fatally shot by federal immigration officers in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The incident sparked outrage nationwide, including from at least one Republican senator, with critics demanding accountability for the DHS killing.
Yet later that same day, comedian James Austin Johnson, performing on the show as Trump, made just one mention of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in his opening monologue, which mostly mocked the president for his supposed fixation on receiving awards.
“After what all my little freaks and psychos in ICE have been doing, I need more distractions!” Johnson said in his impression of Trump.
“This was a gigantic failure to read the room,” wrote investigative journalist and author Tim Shorrock in a social media post on X Sunday to their more than 31,000 followers.
And Dolly Madison, a self-described social worker and patient advocate with more than 6,500 followers on X, issued a simple message for the comedy sketch show that airs on NBC: “Read the God D— Room SNL!”
We are over jokes. His henchmen are murdering people. https://t.co/twjzghn8g6 — Glory (@isaac_todd45719) January 25, 2026
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