What a wild ride these last few months have been. This election season is over, but the political drama floodgates are open – and a pivot in pop culture is flooding through. Saturday Night Live had just hit the ground running for the 50th season with their fresh and topical rhythm of political cold-opens featuring the Kamala Harris / Joe Biden / Tim Walz / Doug Emhoff crew. Maya Rudolph, Dana Carvey, Jim Gaffigan, and Andy Samberg were top-tier selections to represent the real-world politicians in the world of SNL.

For many, the biggest plot twist of the year was the outcome of the 2024 presidential election. Assuming SNL will continue to infuse the hot topics of politics on a regular basis, the casting of the reoccurring headline makers in the Trump administration will be interesting.

In fact, the cold open for the November 4^th episode hosted by Bill Burr was an acknowledgment of the Trump win with its own twist.

Saturday Night Live – NBC

The MAGA characters

Back in Trump’s first administration, Alec Baldwin was tapped to play Trump on SNL for a notable number of episodes. Today, cast member James Austin Johnson serves the role of Donald Trump.

A few have certainly solidified their character impressions of Trump’s administration, including Mikey Day as Don Jr. and Bowen Yang as JD Vance. Cecily Strong played Melania Trump and Marjorie Taylor Greene, Kate McKinnon played Rudy Giuliani, Hillary Clinton, and Lindsey Graham, Aidy Bryant played a very memorable Ted Cruz, and so many others that will likely need to have actors to do impressions of them.

Here are some other past characters that are likely to get more screen time this season:

Senators Lindsey Graham and Ted Cruz

Fox News Host Jeanine Pirro

Supreme Court Justice Clarence and Ginni Thomas

Kimberly Gilfoyle (Wife of Don Jr.)

Fox News Host Laura Ingraham

Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene

So with the shake-up of the real-world election results, here are some characters that need to be cast ASAP.

1. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was promised free rein over America’s health agencies. So far, there doesn’t seem to be any actor cast, but it will be fun to see who ends up as the SNL version of RFK Jr.
2. Elon Musk is definitely the most eccentric member of the incoming Trump Administration yet as Trump’s “Secretary of Cost Cutting”. He even hosted Saturday Night Live a few years ago.

Season 46 – “Gen Z Hospital” – Elon Musk -Saturday Night Live / NBC

Just this past weekend on November 4^th, Dana Carvey played Elon Musk – perhaps temporarily – but with Biden leaving the White House soon, this super SNL alumni could very well hold the gig at least for this season.

As for any other up-and-coming Trump administration standouts, the impressions are yet to be formed and no one said the impressions are going to be (or were always) great, but only time will tell who from the real world will be enshrined in Saturday Night Live’s history of political characters.

Check out this collection of political sketches from Saturday Night Live!