Posted in: NBC, Peacock, TV | Tagged: saturday night live, snl, The White Lotus

SNL 50 Rewind: When Trump's Crew Vacationed at "The White Lotus"

With SNL 50: Jon Hamm/Lizzo reairing, we look back at "The White Potus," a brilliant mash-up of the Trump crew and HBO's The White Lotus.

As we await word on what the cast of NBC's Saturday Night Live will look like heading into Season 51, the summer is bringing us a look back at the milestone 50th season. Tonight, SNL flashes back to April 12th, with host Jon Hamm (Apple TV+'s Your Friends & Neighbors) and musical guest Lizzo. With that in mind, we're looking back at not just the best sketch of the night but also one of the best of the season, one that turned Mike White's hit HBO series into something truly scary.

In SNL's Trump/The White Lotus mashup ("The White POTUS: An American Horror Story"), James Austin Johnson's Trump is Timothy Ratliff – with Chloe Fineman's Melania as Victoria Ratliff, Mikey Day's Donald Trump Jr. as Saxon Ratliff, and the returning Alex Moffat's Eric Trump as Lochlan Ratliff – with Trump trying to decide whether to kill himself, his family, or both over how his tariffs are wrecking the economy – instead, choosing to shoot Uncle Sam.

Musical guest Lizzo was great as Belinda, dropping a great joke about how her $5 million from Gary/Greg (Jon Gries) used to be $20 million – and speaking of Gary/Greg, guess who advised Trump on the tariffs in the first place under the name Howard Lutnick? We also got a special appearance from Scarlett Johansson (as Ivanka Trump!!!), Heidi Gardner's Kristi Noem, Ashley Padilla's Pam Bondi, Marcello Hernandez's Marco Rubio, and a very swarthy Vladimir Putin (the returning Beck Bennett).

But the sketch also got attention for a not-so-great reason (one we noted in our original review). Hamm's Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. was a crazed Rick, ranting about measles and fluoride. It was that last part that brought us a look at Sarah Sherman as Aimee Lou Wood's Chelsea, who asked what fluoride was. The two big red flags were obvious. First, Sherman wasn't playing a political figure playing a character – she was pretending to be Wood as Chelsea. Second, Sherman's physical portrayal of Wood/Chelsea was definitely not meant to be flattering, and it felt like a cheap shot/punching down in the middle of a sketch that made some strong satirical points. Apparently, Wood felt the same way…

In a series of Instagram Stories posts addressing another matter related to her HBO series, Wood made it clear that she wasn't a fan of how she was portrayed. "I did find the SNL thing mean and unfunny," Wood wrote at one point. In a later post, Wood added, "Such a shame cuz I had such a great time watching it a couple weeks ago. Yes, take the piss for sure — that's what the show is about — but there must be a cleverer, more nuanced, less cheap way?" Shortly before this went to post, Wood posted an update that "I've had apologies from SNL." Here's a rundown of Wood's responses to SNL's sketch.

Since then, Sherman spoke out to say that it wasn't her intention to insult Wood in any way, with Wood noting that she and Sherman had discussed the sketch privately and that everything was good.

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