To President Donald Trump, size matters.
During last year’s presidential campaign, he used some of his time on the debate stage to deny that he has small hands and defend the size of his penis. He and his team would often brag about and (sometimes exaggerate) the size of the crowds at his campaign stops and rallies. And on Saturday, January 21, one day after his inauguration, his press secretary lied about the turnout for Trump’s swearing-in, saying it was “the largest audience ever to witness an inauguration, both in person and around the globe.”
So it’s safe to Trump won’t be happy with Saturday Night Live’s cold open.
The show opened with a message from Beck Bennett’s Vladimir Putin speaking to the American public about how he rigged the election, quipping that America was the “most expensive thing we’ve ever bought.”
But the sketch quickly shifted into Putin trolling Trump, by telling the president he wasn’t off to a great start.
“I’m glad to see so many people showed up to your inauguration,” Putin says, looking at a shot of the massive crowd. “Oh wait, that’s the Women’s March.”
Putin then segued into Trump’s lies about how many people showed up, and offered the new president some advice.
“Today you went to the CIA and you told them a million people came to see you [get inaugurated],” Putin says. “If you’re going to lie, don’t make it so obvious.”
SNL was just spoofing Trump’s penchant for grandstanding and telling blatant lies. But given that on the second day of Trump’s presidency, his press secretary lambasted the media for reporting on the low inauguration attendance — while clearly lying about said attendance — SNL may have just offered the president some real-world advice he can use.
