Donald Trump may have taken over the White House, but can’t we at least keep him out of 30 Rock?
The decision made by “Saturday Night Live” to let Trump host the show in 2015 was widely derided for normalizing and promoting a presidential candidate that had controversial viewpoints. After his appearance, multiple “SNL” cast members even tried distancing themselves from the episode.
But despite all that, the show apparently invited Trump back earlier this year.
During an appearance on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show,” Alec Baldwin revealed that when he hosted an “SNL” episode in February, the show reached out to Trump with an invite for a return.
“We asked him to come. We invited him to come,” he told Ellen. “We were so hopeful he would come, but he didn’t show up.”
Baldwin, who has been impersonating Trump for months on “SNL,” laughed after admitting that fact, before asking Ellen if she’s ever invited Trump on her show.
“No, um, no,” she responded.
“We invited him to come. We were so hopeful he would come, but he didn’t show up.”
- Alec Baldwin
It remains unclear what this “SNL” invite actually entailed or whether showrunners would have put Trump back on screen. Perhaps he would have just been in the audience, though “SNL” has a history of inviting ridiculed politicians on for a sort of redemption moment (most famously with Sarah Palin).
Trump did repeatedly attack the show on Twitter when Baldwin first debuted his impersonation, but it’s hard to imagine that any new Trump appearance on “SNL” wouldn’t be framed as a he’s such a good sport moment.
HuffPost reached out to a representative for “SNL” for further clarification, but did not immediately hear back.
Watch Baldwin on “Ellen” above.
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