Trump hawks crappy NFTs in 'SNL' cold open

"Seems like a scam and in many ways it is."
 By 
Tim Marcin
 on 
snl actor james austin johnson as trump
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Things under former President Donald Trump were often so strange that Saturday Night Live hardly had to fuss about reality to turn the reality star into a joke.

And, well, they were up to their old tricks on Saturday night. Fantastic impressionist and cast member James Austin Johnson opened the show as Trump, hawking crappy, cartoonish NFTs, which of course, the real former president did.

The show's cold open featured Johnson as Trump doing an infomercial for the trading card NFTs.

"Trump cards are each $99, which seems like a lot," Johnson says. "Seems like a scam, and in many ways it is, but we love Trump cards."

One hallmark of Johnson's version of Trump is that he's absurd. Well, absurd in a different way than the real former president. True to form, Johnson's Trump launches into an explanation of his NFTs that touches on Pokémon, Avatar, and Ron DeSantis looking like a Roblox.

Per usual, Johnson's impression was a delight and you just never know where things are going to go until he gets there. Most hilarious of all, perhaps, is the impossibility of parsing what SNL made up and what came from reality. The NFT cards from the real world were just that crappy and weird.

Topics SNL Donald Trump

close-up of man's face
Tim Marcin
Associate Editor, Culture

Tim Marcin is an Associate Editor on the culture team at Mashable, where he mostly digs into the weird parts of the internet. You'll also see some coverage of memes, tech, sports, trends, and the occasional hot take. You can find him on Bluesky (sometimes), Instagram (infrequently), or eating Buffalo wings (as often as possible).


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