Watch: SNL introduces Trump’s ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future

Christmas has come to the White House, and on Saturday Night Live this week, it came in a decidedly Dickensian style.

On this week’s cold open, Alec Baldwin’s Donald Trump went through his own abbreviated Christmas Carol, with a twist that’s particularly timely this week.

Michael Flynn played the part of Trump’s Jacob Marley, warning Trump, “Any number of people could come back from your past to haunt you — and three will arrive tonight.”

Billy Bush of Access Hollywood tape fame appeared as the Ghost of Christmas Past, reminding us all that in this era of powerful men being destroyed by allegations of sexual misconduct, Trump not only has multiple allegations against him but was caught on tape apparently bragging about them. “Can you believe I was fired just for listening to you?” Bush marveled, before reminding Trump as he faded away, “If you worked for NBC right now, you’d be fired … fired … fired.”

The Ghost of Christmas Present was Vladimir Putin, who told Trump to stop acting so erratically because he was messing up their plan. But the peak of the sketch came with the Ghost of Christmas Future: Kate McKinnon’s Hillary Clinton, at her most gleeful.

“You have brought me the greatest Christmas gift of all: sexual gratification in the form of your humiliation,” she crowed, before beginning a rousing chant of “Lock him up!”

“You have no idea how long I’ve wanted to say that,” she sighed.

God bless Kate McKinnon, everyone.

Will you support Vox’s explanatory journalism?

Most news outlets make their money through advertising or subscriptions. But when it comes to what we’re trying to do at Vox, there are a couple of big issues with relying on ads and subscriptions to keep the lights on:

First, advertising dollars go up and down with the economy. We often only know a few months out what our advertising revenue will be, which makes it hard to plan ahead.

Second, we’re not in the subscriptions business. Vox is here to help everyone understand the complex issues shaping the world — not just the people who can afford to pay for a subscription. We believe that’s an important part of building a more equal society. And we can’t do that if we have a paywall.

So even though advertising is still our biggest source of revenue, we also seek grants and reader support. (And no matter how our work is funded, we have strict guidelines on editorial independence.)

If you also believe that everyone deserves access to trusted high-quality information, will you make a gift to Vox today? Any amount helps.

One-Time Monthly Annual

$5/month

$10/month

$25/month

$50/month

Other

$

Yes, I'll give $5/month

Yes, I'll give $5/month

We accept credit card, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. You can also contribute via