Alec Baldwin is taking virtually no salary for portraying Donald Trump on SNL

| 10:55 pm EST January 7, 2017
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Alec Baldwin’s portrayal of a hopelessly in over his head Donald Trump on Saturday Night Live has taken on an almost hero-like aura for those who oppose everything Trump stands for. Baldwin has managed to take everything that’s inherently idiotic and ridiculous about Trump’s nature and turn it into something genuinely funny, while exposing his unfitness in the process. So just how much is the famous actor being paid for his SNL appearances in a Trump wig and orange makeup? Virtually nothing.

According to a recent profile of Alec Baldwin’s portrayal of Donald Trump in the New York Times, the actor is being paid just $1400 per Saturday Night Live episode by NBC. That may be more than most people make in a day’s worth, but it’s a mere rounding error the the reported $300,000 that Baldwin was being contractually paid for each episode of his NBC sitcom 30 Rock.

In fact it’s less than one half of one percent of the kind of salary which Alec Baldwin has been able to negotiate for past projects. In other words, Alec Baldwin is lampooning Donald Trump on Saturday Night Live each week simply because he wants to. In his words, he feels he has an obligation. Considering Baldwin’s liberalism and how much he’s clearly enjoying tearing Trump down, it may not come as a surprise.