Saturday Night Live took a shot at U.S. President Donald Trump, following the U.S. and Israel’s joint strikes on Iran, which left Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei dead.
On Saturday, February 28, the President shared an eight-minute video declaring that the U.S. had launched “major combat operations in Iran,” to “defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime, a vicious group of very hard, terrible people.”
”Its menacing activities directly endanger the United States, our troops, our bases overseas, and our allies throughout the world,” the POTUS added, as per Al Jazeera.
President Donald J. Trump on the United States military combat operations in Iran: pic.twitter.com/LimJmpLkgZ
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) February 28, 2026
Mocking the President’s speech in its February 28 cold open sketch, SNL began with, “Last evening, at the very normal time of two in the morning, President Trump informed the nation that we were at war with Iran. And now, with some further thoughts, President Trump.”
James Austin Johnson, portraying President Donald Trump, took the podium and declared, “Good evening and Happy World War 3 who celebrate. It’s me, Donald Trump, FIFA Peace Prize winner and NOBEL Peace Prize taker, yoink,”
“I launched this attack after me and my Board of Peace decided that we were bored of peace. A little word play there, did you catch it? Iran has been two weeks away from developing a nuclear weapon for like, the last 15 years or something. So we had to act now, and we’re doing war. War. What is it good for? Distracting from the Epstein files,” added Johnson, as Trump.
He continued to mimick President Trump, stating that “I know on the campaign trail I promised no new foreign wars. But listen, “wars” plural, right? I’m allowed to do one. Do one foreign war and possibly one civil.”
Trump shares his thoughts on the U.S. strikes on Iran pic.twitter.com/JO6Iu2DDSp
— Saturday Night Live (@nbcsnl) March 1, 2026
Johnson, as Trump, further stated that MAGA voters shouldn’t be surprised by the President’s actions, joking that he has always been unpredictable.
“To all my MAGA voters who are upset and saying, ‘This is not what I voted for,’ well, you did. Don’t you know who I am? I’m me. Even I don’t know what I’m gonna do next. Nobody knows, he said, adding, “I’m unpredictable. I’m like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re gonna get.”
He continued to mock the President, saying, “I don’t get it. People beg and beg for Trump, and then when you get him, you don’t like him. What’s going on? All right? I’m like a new Star Wars movies. They see the trailer for The Mandalorian & Grogu, and they say, ‘Never mind. I don’t want that.'”
Johnson’s Trump further stated that he launched an attack on Iran during the early hours of Saturday because it has two advantages militarily.
Citing those reasons, he said, “One, it’s after the stock market closes for the weekend, and two, it’s to cause immeasurable fear, rage, and chaos in the ‘SNL‘ writers’ room. Those guys were going crazy. They probably had a big State of the Union address thing they were gonna do.”
The comedian, playing Trump, went on to welcome Colin Jost as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
“I am scared and I don’t know what I’m doing. When he said we were going to blow up the leader of Iran, I thought he was kidding,” said Jost, playing the role of Hegseth.
The SNL sketch aired amid Iran’s retaliatory strikes after reports claimed that its supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed in the joint attacks by the U.S. and Israel.
