Variety is reporting that Alec Baldwin has been tapped to play presidential candidate (and living gift to impressionists) Donald Trump on Saturday Night Live’s upcoming 42nd season. Baldwin—who, like Trump himself, is a veteran host of the long-running sketch series—will be taking over the part from former cast member and current announcer Darrell Hammond. Hammond has been playing the show’s caricature of Trump off-and-on for more than a decade, with his tenure interrupted by a brief run from the recently fired Taran Killam last year.
NBC made the announcement via a dramatic little teaser video, pitting Baldwin’s Trump against Kate McKinnon’s well-honed take on Hillary Clinton. The new casting—which will reportedly see the 16-time host appear as Trump for this Saturday’s Margot Robbie-hosted premiere—seems like a deliberate nod to the show’s popular use of Larry David as its cranky, straight-talking version of former presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders. Like David, Baldwin is expected to recur throughout the rest of the election cycle, lending his fake eyebrows and pursed lips to the show’s take on the current presidential madness.
