Alec Baldwin made a splash on the small screen back in 2016 when he first appeared as then-presidential candidate Donald Trump on Saturday Night Live. What could have been a short run as a presidential hopeful turned into a semi-regular gig for Baldwin after Trump won't the election. He has appeared on SNL many times since, and won an Emmy for his efforts back in 2017. Despite the success, he recently said that was "so done" playing Trump. Now, however, that may not be the case.
The actor amended his previous comments that seemed to definitively rule out reprising his role as Donald Trump on Saturday Night Live, saying this:
Lorne is my dear friend, and if he wants me to continue, I probably will. I get sick of [appearing as Trump] and I’ve whined about it regularly, because in the zeitgeist I’m a pretty political person and where I would normally put that energy is in voter registration, to work with MoveOn.org, to get involved in an actual candidacy and get more into that. But Lorne is my dear friend and [SNL] is like another home to me, so if they want me to do it, I probably will.
Alec Baldwin counts Saturday Night Live creator and executive producer Lorne Michaels as a "dear friend," so he'll likely don the Donald Trump wig and tie again if Michaels asks him to. His comments to TVLine indicate that he's not actually looking to return to the show as Trump and would rather focus on real-life political efforts (and presumably his other projects), but he's not "so done" after all.
While fans of his version of Donald Trump will undoubtedly be happy to see he softened his stance, Alec Baldwin has said for a while that he'd like to step back from playing the President on Saturday Night Live. Back in 2018, he's stated that he "can't say it's a lot of fun" creating Donald Trump for the show, although he loves "going there" and referred to the SNL folks as "all old and dear friends of mine."
Of course, he did appear as Trump in the latest season of SNL on multiple occasions, although there was also arguably an increase in other political figures being spoofed on the show. Memorably, Matt Damon turned up to shout his way through a sketch as Brett Kavanaugh.
It's probably safe to say that Donald Trump himself won't return to host again, and not just because of Kenan Thompson's opinion of his hosting ability. Current cast member (and Game of Thrones fan) Leslie Jones suggested last year that SNL focuses less on "political stuff." Will the 2019-2020 season be when SNL moves away from politics?
A recast for the role of Donald Trump is certainly possible, even if Pete Davidson isn't looking to fill those shoes again. We'll have to wait and see what happens. Saturday Night Live won't be back on NBC until the fall, so fans will have to content themselves with the summer TV lineup. And hey, if you're hoping for a fix of Alec Baldwin, you can always look forward to his roast!
