Equal Time: Bring Back Darrell Hammond as Donald J. Trump...
... paired with Dana Carvey, would be powerfully healing...
Last Saturday night, Saturday Night Live (SNL) did its usual snarky portrayal of now President-elect Donald J. Trump, played, since 2021, by James Austin Johnson, paired with outgoing President Joseph R. Biden, who, since this fall, longtime cast member Dana Carvey has portrayed in the wake of Biden being shoved off the ticket.
It was a parody of the meeting that occurred between the incoming and outgoing presidents on Wednesday, November 13, in the Oval Office of the West Wing President Theodore Roosevelt built, for the traditional and formal beginning of the transition when the party in power prepares, after losing the presidency, as Vice President Kamala Harris did in a landslide, to hand over the reins of power.
“Get a load of me. Instead of doing rude and crazy like usual, I’m doing quiet and serene, which in many ways is a lot scarier,” SNL’s Johnson says before their private meeting begins. Then, at the start of the meeting, Johnson says, “I forgot how boring President is. Love running. Hate being. I hate the White House. So old. So dated…”
Pleeeez!
Here’s how it really went down as the pair sat in the high back chairs in front of the crackling fire and spoke to the press, and public.
Oval Office
11:07 A.M. EST
PRESIDENT BIDEN: Well, Mr. President-Elect and former president —
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you very much, Joe.
PRESIDENT BIDEN: — and — Donald, congratulations.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you very much.
PRESIDENT BIDEN: And looking forward to having a, like we said, smooth transition — do everything we can to make sure you’re accommodated, what you need. And we’re going to get a chance to talk about some of that today. So —
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Good.
PRESIDENT BIDEN: — welcome. Welcome back.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you very much. And thank you very much.
And politics is tough. And it’s, many cases, not a very nice world, but it is a nice world today. And I appreciate it very much — a transition that’s so smooth it’ll be as smooth as it can get.
And I very much appreciate that, Joe.
PRESIDENT BIDEN: You’re welcome.
Thank you all.
11:08 A.M. EST
Trump was the picture of grace and magnanimity, with an eye toward healing the nation after Americans have endured so much in the hyper-politicized atmosphere of the last eight years, featuring a regular barrage of invective hurled in his direction and that of his supporters. “Hitler,” he was called; they “trash,” by none other than his smiling host.
Here’s an idea. Give Trump the real “equal time” he is owed in the wake of Harris getting that surprise cameo on SNL three days before the election.
The gratis “equal time” election spot airing at the end of NBC’s NASCAR Xfinity 500 race coverage and its NFL “Sunday Night Football” telecast Sunday does not cut it.
Equal should be equal.
And, there’s nothing like SNL.
So, why not bring back Darrell Hammond, if he would do it, to reprise his portrayal of Donald J. Trump, which he did from 1999 onward—not dripping with venomous disdain, but just spot-on, intelligent, healing humor.
He was SNL’s best Trump and Trump’s favorite.
If they want to do a masterful show, Hammond is their guy.
Of course, he was dropped when Trump won the presidency in 2016, so obviously, because he was so good, he made Trump look good. And that was bad.
Not famous as Alec Baldwin, the excuse given. Are you kidding me?! Hammond was the essence of fame given his dead-on portrayals not only of Trump but of Bill Clinton, Al Gore, George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan.
In 2024, Americans craved a return of Trump. Now they crave a return of real comedy. They crave Darrell Hammond, if he’s game.
Mary Claire Kendall is author of Oasis: Conversion Stories of Hollywood Legends. The sequel, Oasis of Faith: The Souls Behind the Billboard—Barrymore, Cagney, Tracy, Stewart, Guinness & Lemmon, was published summer 2024. Her biography of Ernest Hemingway, titled Hemingway’s Faith, is being published Christmas 2024 by Rowman & Littlefield, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing. She writes a regular bi-monthly column for Aleteia on legends of Hollywood and hidden screen gems.