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'SNL' Just Added A New Cast Member Whose Trump Impression Is Blowing Everyone's Minds

'SNL' Just Added A New Cast Member Whose Trump Impression Is Blowing Everyone's Minds
@shrimpJAJ; Sean Rayford/Getty Images
Peter Karleby
By Peter KarlebySep 28, 2021
Peter Karleby
Peter Karleby is a writer, content producer and performer originally from Michigan. His writing has also appeared on YourTango, Delish and Medium, and he has produced content for NBC, The New York Times and The CW, among others. When not working, he can be found tripping over his own feet on a hiking trail while singing Madonna songs to ward off lurking bears.
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Saturday Night Live recently announced the addition of three new cast members to the iconic show, and one of them does an impression of former Republican President Donald Trump that is so dead-on if you closed your eyes you might confuse him for the real thing.

James Austin Johnson's take on the former President has been delighting the internet for a while, but now it seems we'll be seeing it on our TVs too when SNL returns for its 47th season.And with Trump still ubiquitous and hinting at a 2024 run, it's easy to see why.

After all, someone's going to have to do Trump for the show and, well—see for yourself below.

If Johnson isn't the guy for the job it's hard to imagine who could be.


Shockingly good, isn't it?

So how does he do it? Johnson spoke with Vanity Fairabout the impression last year just after the election, telling the magazine how exactly he creates this brand of somehow insanely realistic absurdity.

"I tend to hover around Rally Trump, and there's absolutely no rehearsal there. I pick a pop-culture topic, usually something that is an actual opinion I actually hold."

Hence the Trump monologue about Super Mario Brothers above—or this one, about Trump complaining about how Pokémon games work.


Of course, Johnson has big shoes to fill if he's going to be SNL's new resident Trump lampooner. Actor Alec Baldwin's Trump impression was so perfect he won an Emmy for the performance in 2017.

But Baldwin has been over the gig for a while.

Back in 2019, he told Deadline doing the impression sometimes made him "hope a meteor hits this building and it kills me" because the former President "likes any attention he gets." When Trump lost the 2020 election, Baldwin tweeted that he'd never been "this overjoyed to lose a job before!"

If anyone is a worthy successor to Baldwin, it's Johnson, and on Twitter people were all about this new SNL casting choice.










The new season of SNL begins this Saturday, October 2.

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