Lin-Manuel Miranda represents Hamilton with Trump

On January 26, 2025By Littum

Lin-Manuel Miranda isn’t throwing away his shot to bring back his Alexander Hamilton.

The Tony winner reprized his title role from “Hamilton” in the recent “Saturday Night Live” Cold Open, which pitted him face-to-face with President Donald Trump (played by James Austin Johnson).

The skit began with the signing of the Declaration of Independence, with Miranda’s Hamilton coming in to give a stirring speech that transitioned into a rap.

“In America we’ll never have a king,” he rapped, only for Johnson’s Trump to jump in and declare, “never say never! Kidding, of course, although in many ways I’m not. I’m in my King era.”

Join our Watch Party! Sign up To receive USA Today’s movie and TV recommendations straight to your inbox.

Johnson’s Trump continued to give a rambling monologue while the actors portraying the founding fathers, including Miranda, remained frozen behind him. He considered his inauguration, which took place within “because of cold and fear,” a “tremendous success” and riffed on the hat worn by First Lady Melania Trump.

“We had a lot of surprise guests like Melania,” he said. “It was nice. Melania showed up to my inauguration dressed like, frankly, Kung Lao from ‘Mortal Kombat.’ “

In the “Mortal Kombat” video series, Kung Lao is known for his large hat that is used as a weapon.

Trump also mocked Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who attended the inauguration, saying that “to quote some of his own children, ‘I don’t want him in my life.’ “

But the sketch got meta when Trump grilled Miranda — calling him by his real name, not his character’s name — for being forced to remain frozen the entire time he spoke.

“Look at Lin,” he said. “Look how bad he wants to do a rap. He wrote a whole rap and he doesn’t get to do it. Oh, the audience would have eaten it right up. But we don’t want to hear it. He’s sniffing Distance of a ego, and he has to stand there until I’m done.”

Miranda, struggling not to laugh as Johnson got closer to him, was finally forced to break free to deny Trump/Johnson’s claim that he anonymously contributed $1 million to the president’s campaign.

Timothée Chalamet Jokes ‘I Just Keep Losing’ Awards, Performs Bob Dylan Songs on ‘SNL’

The episode was hosted by Timothée Chalamet, who is nominated for an Oscar this year for playing Bob Dylan in “A Complete Unknown.” The actor said he “literally cried in my dressing room here” when he found out the film received eight Academy Award nominations.

But Chalamet joked that while it’s a “tremendous honor” to go to award shows, “I just keep losing, and every time it gets harder to pretend it’s not squirming.” The show played a montage of Chalamet’s face, which other nominees won at various award shows.

“The most embarrassing part is that I’ve had this sad little speech in my pocket for four years that I never got a chance to read,” he said. “So I thought maybe tonight I could read it to everyone here.”

Chalamet then asked the audience to pretend they were at an awards show and handed an envelope to an audience member to open, only for them to announce that “the award goes to Kenan Thompson,” who came on stage to accept while Chalamet looked displeased.

Chalamet also served as musical guest, performing a medley of Dylan’s “Outlaw Blues” and “Three Angels” followed by “Tomorrow Is Long Time.”

In his monologue, the actor told viewers that while they “may not know” The Dylan songs he would perform, they are his “personal favorites.”

“I’m so thankful ‘Saturday Night Live’ is still doing weird stuff like this, 50 years in,” he said. “They’re either really good at letting me do this or incredibly mean and it’s all a big prank. I honestly can’t tell. We’ll find out.”