Lin-Manuel Miranda was a surprise guest on this week’s episode of “Saturday Night Live,” appearing as Alexander Hamilton in a sketch about the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
The “Hamilton” star had barely begun a rap about the founding of America before he was interrupted by James Austin Johnson’s Donald Trump. The cast froze immediately after Miranda declared the United States “will never have a king” to let Trump monologue to the crowd.
“Never say never! Kidding, of course, though in many ways I’m not,” the faux-Trump said. “I’m in my king era, but just like the founding fathers, I am creating a new country as well. And just like them, we’re doing it very whitely!”
Trump poked fun at the outfits of the Founding Fathers (“a little zesty”) before taking some time to discuss his Cabinet picks.
“We’re filling my Cabinet with some of the best people,” he said. “They’re all very good, except for most of them.”
After discussing the accomplishments of his first week in office and touching on Elon Musk’s arguable Nazi salute (“I think he did it a little bit”), Trump turned to teasing a frozen Miranda. Inching close to the actor and composer, he played free associative word games with his name and pointed out the absurdity of the situation.
“He’s in sniffing distance of an EGOT and he’s got to stand there ’til I’m done,” Johnson said, before prodding Miranda with a claim that he donated $1 million to the Trump campaign.
Watch the entire segment below:
Read more
about Saturday Night Live