President Trump lashed out at actor Alec Baldwin first thing Friday morning, blasting his “Saturday Night Live” impersonation of him as “terrible” and calling for the comedy show to bring back Darrell Hammond, an SNL alum who once played Trump.
“Alec Baldwin, whose dying mediocre career was saved by his terrible impersonation of me on SNL, now says playing me was agony,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “Alec, it was agony for those who were forced to watch. Bring back Darrell Hammond, funnier and a far greater talent!”
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Trump posted a similar tweet earlier on Friday, in which he referred to the actor as “Alex Baldwin,” though it was quickly deleted.
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Baldwin, whose Trump impersonation on the NBC show has gotten rave reviews, told The Hollywood Reporter in an interview published Thursday that playing the president is “agony.”
But Trump has long bristled at Baldwin’s performance, and has repeatedly insisted that the impersonation — and SNL more broadly — is not funny and delivers poor ratings. Those attacks, however, had declined in recent days.
Hammond, a former cast member on SNL, played Trump on the program for more than a decade. He reprised that role during Trump’s presidential campaign, before Baldwin took over in September 2016.