SNL's latest cold open takes aim at President Trump over Epstein Files redactions

During the December 20, 2025 episode of Saturday Night Live, James Austin Johnson used the show’s cold open to parody President Donald Trump’s holiday address. 

The sketch took aim at the heavily redacted Epstein files and Trump’s claim that his administration is the “most transparent in history,” despite hundreds of pages from the long-awaited documents being blacked out when they were partially released by the Justice Department on Friday. 

“With regard to files, we're being very transparent,” said Johnson’s Trump in the sketch. “Because Jeffrey Epstein was a terrible man, and I didn't know him, and I liked him a lot.”

“We released all the files, and I come out looking, frankly, very good. We had to redact a few sensitive things, but you'll get the gist here…” 

At this point, Johnson’s Trump turned to a giant file beside him that was completely covered in black reaction marks apart from the words: “Trump Didn’t Do Nothing Bad.”

“See, it's all there. Can you believe it?” he said. 

He continued the joke, stating that his government was renaming federal buildings because they had to put all the mentions of his name that they had taken off the Epstein files “somewhere.”

Other subjects on SNL's Trump parody

Trump delivers a holiday message from the White House pic.twitter.com/37WpSWYYDd

— Saturday Night Live - SNL (@nbcsnl) December 21, 2025

The December 20, 2025 Saturday Night Live cold open also mocked Trump’s hand-picked board for voting to rename the Kennedy Center as The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.

“We are renaming the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, which will now be called the Trump-Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts - No Homo,” Johnson added.

“I'm actually going to be renaming a number of our other monuments as well…Trump-Washington Monument...Trump Lincoln Memorial,” Johnson rattled off jokes while holding up mock images of historic landmarks emblazoned with the president’s name.

The nearly five-minute sketch copied the rambling style of Trump’s speeches, in which he frequently boasts about his cognitive test results.

“I'm doing my own version of Nativity now, where kings from the Middle East bring gifts for me, like gold and airplane and casino deal in Dubai,” the actor stated. “But unlike nativity, they're not showing up on camel. And I know camel, I know it very well. I know it from my mandatory daily cognitive test.”

“I always get camel right. It's bumpy horse,” he went on. “That's how I know camel- bumpy horse.”

The announcement of “Patriot Games” for elite high school athletes became another mocking target at SNL.

The parody POTUS joked that the White House would host its own version of The Hunger Games, quipping that inviting teenagers was the perfect distraction from the Epstein documents. 

SNL also mocked Trump’s dismissal of economic concerns, with Johnson delivering a rambling aside in which Trump insisted the economy was improving before veering into a confused reference to the Indigo Girls, incorrectly naming Melissa Etheridge and Elton John as members. 

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