Donald Trump hosts 'Saturday Night Live'
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during his appearance on Fox's news talk show "The O'Reilly Factor," Friday, Nov. 6, 2015. Credit: AP / Bebeto Matthews
Sidestepping protests, critics, challengers and even "Saturday Night Live" tradition, Donald Trump hosted the NBC program Saturday night for the first time since 2004, when he starred on the NBC series, "The Apprentice."
"It's wonderful to be here," he said, walking out onstage at Studio 8H, after an eight-minute cold open. "This is going to be something special. Many of the greats have hosted this show, like me."
He deadpanned a little more: His friends told him, "Donald, you're the most amazing guy -- you're brilliant, you're handsome, you're rich -- the world is waiting for you to be president. Why are you hosting 'Saturday Night Live'? The answer is, I have nothing better to do."
He was heckled offstage by Larry David, who returned to "SNL" as Bernie Sanders: "Donald Trump is a racist!" adding: "I heard if I yelled out, they'd give me $5,000," referring to reports that protesters had offered to pay audience members to taunt the host.
Trump also starred, along with his daughter Ivanka, in the first sketch -- in which Trump had actually won the White House.
The conceit was that everything Trump had promised in his campaign had come true, including forcing Mexico to pay for a border wall. "Americans are sick of winning," he was told. "I know how they feel," he said. "That is just the price you have to pay."
In the third sketch, he live-tweeted his reactions. His first tweet: "This sketch is not funny."
Trump's appearance was controversial in part because of inflammatory comments he made in June about Mexicans who have illegally entered the United States. NBC severed ties with Trump, but a thaw followed. Citing Trump's comments about some immigrants as "rapists," a coalition of Latino groups sought to derail his "SNL" appearance, while protests continued outside 30 Rock before showtime.
Trump -- who said in a recent interview with CNN that he is a friend of "SNL" executive producer Lorne Michaels -- becomes only the third actively campaigning candidate for president to host the show, and the first who is a front-runner, or among the front-runners. The others who were campaigning at the time of their hosting appearance were Steve Forbes in 1996 and Al Sharpton in 2003.
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