Actor Alec Baldwin is pushing back against President-elect Donald Trump’s Twitter crusade on Saturday Night Live.
President-elect Donald Trump’s revolutionary use of Twitter before, during and now after the campaign has dominated the news cycle. While he’s been tight-lipped and secretive with the press pool, he’s been using Twitter extensively to give his opinions on the cast of Hamilton’s speech to future Vice-President Mike Pence, flag burning, the New York Times and the content of Saturday Night Live.
After Saturday’s sketch depicting the President-elect’s supposed inability to stay off of Twitter, Trump tweeted, “Just tried watching Saturday Night Live – unwatchable! Totally biased, not funny and the Baldwin impersonation just can’t get any worse. Sad.”
In response, Baldwin tweeted to the President-elect and offered to stop his impersonation on one condition – that Trump releases his tax returns. “Release your tax returns and I’ll stop,” the actor wrote, referencing the fact that Trump is the first candidate in 40 years to not release his tax returns to the press and public. Trump has yet to respond to Baldwin’s tweet, even though it is the first time the actor has suggested that he might stop his impersonation.
This isn’t the first time the President-elect has criticized Baldwin and Saturday Night Live. Trump has been an outspoken critic of Baldwin’s portrayal of him on the weekly comedy variety show since October. Trump first took to social media to voice his displeasure of the show’s depiction of him in October when he tweeted: “Watched Saturday Night Live hit job on me. Time to retire the boring and unfunny show. Alec Baldwin portrayal stinks. Media rigging election!”
After winning the election, Trump took to Twitter after another Saturday Night Live sketch satirizing the now President-elect. On November 20, he complained that SNL was “a totally one-sided, biased show – nothing funny at all. Equal time for us?”