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As politics and entertainment collide on the New York City set of Saturday Night Live, a man who’s treated the world as a stage through more than 30 years as one of the highest-profile business tycoons in America knows what it’s all about.
“It’s called ratings,” Trump told The New York Post. “I go on Jimmy Fallon, he got his best ratings. One of the best nights he’s had in years. Then I did Colbert’s show. That got fantastic ratings. He beat Fallon by a lot. Since then, NBC and I get along great.”
It was not always so. The network and Trump went their separate ways in June after Trump decided to run for the Republican nomination for president.
“When I announced, I talked about illegal immigration and it became a big storm. For two weeks it was brutal. NBC canceled the Miss Universe pageant. Then they found out what I said was right. The whole thing with illegal immigration has become the single biggest thing.”
Then came Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s gig on SNL, which led to an invitation to Trump, first to do a skit and then to host the show.
Trump has one nitpick to offer, having seen cast member Taran Killam’s Trump impression.
“The hair, they can do much better,” he said. “It’s wrong. Considering that it really is my hair, (it’s ironic that) it doesn’t look like it’s his hair. The hair person has to change.”
As for the show itself, it will hardly be Trump’s first rodeo. He hosted SNL in 2004. The hair, of course, was funny even back then.
“It looks like you killed a squirrel to me and put it right on top of ya head,” Trump said during a 2004 routine when he played a janitor and Darrell Hammond played Trump.
“Expect a surprisingly self-aware Trump — a man who in all his ego and desire for attention is OK with poking fun at himself every once in awhile,” wrote Amber Phillips in Friday’s Washington Post. “Believe it or not, Donald Trump can take it as well as he can dish it out. As long as he’s in on the joke.”
There will be jokes about hair. In fact, the promo that NBC released for Trump’s guest-host spot has the show’s Kate McKinnon introducing musical guest Sia, who wears a pink suit, black hat and one of her signature face-shielding wigs. Sia asks McKinnon who is hosting the episode.
Enter Trump, with a matching black and white Sia wig of his own.
“Sia, I love this hair,” Trump says.
Trump, of course, brings a swirl of controversy as well as color to SNL.
On Monday, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus asked NBC to replace Trump as host, saying “racism is not funny.” On Tuesday, a coalition of Latino artists denounced him. There have been calls for protests during the show.
“Look, I think they should demonstrate,” Trump himself said Tuesday. “Ratings will go even higher than they are going to be. It’s going to be one of their highest-rated shows ever, and they’re very excited about it.”
Hosting the show can change how voters perceive Trump.
“‘SNL’ has for a long time been a moment people talk about,” said Matthew Hale, a political science professor at Seton Hall University, told NJ.com. “When Tina Fey was Sarah Palin, that was a big shift in how Sarah Palin was portrayed. It certainly has the potential of that — a big cultural change moment. Or it could get Trump back into the swing of things. It depends on what jokes they tell and how he performs.”
h/t: The Washington Post