Actor Alec Baldwin has agreed to stop lampooning US President-elect Donald Trump on Saturday Night Live on the condition that the billionaire-businessman release his tax returns.
Baldwin plays a comedic version of Trump in the comedy-sketch show, and, on last Saturday’s episode, he poked fun at the President-elect’s social media habits by portraying him as too engrossed with Twitter to pay attention to his advisers at a security briefing.
At one point in the sketch, Kate McKinnon, who played a comedy version of Republican strategist Kellyanne Conway, told the advisers that, “There is a reason, actually, that Donald tweets so much: he does it to distract the media from his business conflicts and all the very scary people in his cabinet.”
This did not sit in well with the real Donald Trump, who decided to bring his outrage at SNL making fun of his tweeting habits by tweeting about it. Alec Baldwin replied.
Release your tax returns and I'll stop.
Ha— ABFoundation (@ABFalecbaldwin) December 4, 2016
Trump is known for resisting any suggestion that he should release his tax returns.
In a recent interview with Today, host Matt Lauer confronted Trump about his tweeting habits and even asked him whether it might be a good idea to maybe just stop watching SNL.
“I hosted ‘SNL’ when it was a good show. There’s nothing funny about it,” Trump said. He also pointed out that he likes Alec Baldwin but “his imitation of me is mean spirited and not very good … his imitation of me doesn’t get me at all,” he explained.
He also predicted the show’s demise. “Who knows how long that show will be on? It’s a terrible show,” he said.
Saturday Night Live‘s ratings are up, though, with the December 3 show posting an uptick of 7% compared to last year. This season also premiered with the highest rating since 2008.
So, sorry Donald Trump; you may have to get used to being portrayed on SNL for the next four years. We are looking forward to your tweets, though.
