Saturday Night Live: Donald Trump fires Steve Bannon, who’s hauled away by the Grim Reaper

| 7:59 pm EDT April 15, 2017
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Saturday Night live opened its April 15th episode in familiar fashion, with Alec Baldwin once again resuming his recurring guest role portraying Donald Trump. But after some opening dialogue with Mike Pence lampooning the fact that Trump has been at his Mar-a-Lago golf resort during most of the critical moments of his presidency, the sketch shifted to its core premise: the ongoing battle between Jared Kushner and Steve Bannon.

Bannon, as per usual, was portrayed as the Grim Reaper. Kushner was portrayed by the episode’s host Jimmy Fallon, who appeared in the same half-military, half-formal wear attire which the real Kushner wore during his recent trip to Iraq. Donald Trump found himself having to decide which of the two White House advisers to keep, and proceeded to do so as if he were on the Bachelor. Predictably, Trump went with his son in law Kushner. This led to Grim Reaper Bannon being hauled away by yet another Grim Reaper.

This SNL sketch vaguely falls in line with real world events. Donald Trump recently removed Steve Bannon from the National Security Council, effectively demoting him but allowing him to retain his Chief Strategist title (source: NBC News). This comes amid widespread reports of Kushner and Bannon feuding in their White House roles, with Kushner holding the edge (source: Newsweek), amid questions of how much longer Bannon might last on the job.

It’s not clear if Jimmy Fallon, a former Saturday Night Live cast member who still works in the same building in his current role as host of the Tonight Show, will return to portray Jared Kushner on a recurring basis. This year has seen Baldwin repeatedly portraying Trump, and Melissa McCarthy repeatedly portraying White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer, even though neither is an SNL cast member. Rosie O’Donnell has publicly volunteered via her Twitter account to portray Steve Bannon, but thus far SNL is sticking with the Grim Reaper. Contribute to Palmer Report