‘SNL’ Cold Open Mocks Trump’s Nobel Prize Envy and Cabinet ‘Monsters’

“Saturday Night Live” mocked President Donald Trump’s egomania surrounding the Nobel Peace Prize, as well as U.S. military action in Venezuela and Kristi Noem’s incredibly callous response to the ICE shooting in Minneapolis in the cold for the show’s first episode of 2026.

There was no shortage of political material to catch up on, and “SNL” made the most of it during a mock Trump news conference and Cabinet meeting. Colin Jost played the unhinged Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. Jeremy Culhane played Vice President JD Vance, who whined about his recent trip to Greenland in a nod to Trump’s outrageous threats that the US would take over the Danish territory.

“I came here to do two things,” said Vance of Culhane. “Kick gum and chew ass. And I’m all out of gum.”

James Austin Johnson’s Trump opened the segment on a podium with the presidential seal about the Christmas holidays.

“I got what I wanted – someone else’s Nobel Prize,” Trump said of Johnson, a nod to the bizarre development in which Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado presented her Nobel Peace Prize to Trump in an attempt to curry favor with him amid unrest in her home country.

“In my stocking I have Maduro – Nicolás Maduro. We did a reverse Santa Claus on him. We came down the chimney with a bag and took him away,” Trump said of Johnson, referring to the highly criticized US move to arrest the Venezuelan strongman who is now in jail in New York accused of drug trafficking.

Johnson’s Trump referenced “Frankenstein” director Guillermo del Toro by mentioning “my little cabinet of curiosities,” referring to his cabinet members as “various monsters and nightmares from the twisted mind of Guillermo del Trump.”

For Homeland Security Secretary Noem, Ashley Padilla came out wearing a cowboy hat similar to the one the real Noem wore when she tried to defend the shooting of a woman in Minneapolis by ICE agents on Jan. 7. “I just want to give a shout out to my hair and makeup team who absolutely hate me,” said Noem of Padilla.

Regarding the terrible situation in Minneapolis, Noem asked of Padilla, “Have we been perfect? ​​Yes.” She then gave a recruitment pitch for ICE. “Is your neck wider than your head? Are you currently wearing a Punisher T-shirt? Have you ever punched a hole in the wall because your son took a dance class? Pick up a gun and saddle, big boy.”

Jost then made a boisterous entrance as Hegseth, drinking an energy drink from an oversized mug and bragging about the military operation carried out in Venezuela on January 1. “We went into Venezuela – we put tea bags in their country,” said Hegseth of Jost.

“We rock our C’s all over the world,” Hegseth said while using a small weight in a sexually suggestive manner. He indicated that Iran would be next to face the force of US forces, referring to the political protests that have killed hundreds of people in the Middle Eastern country. “You don’t dare kill your demonstrators – that’s our thing,” warned Hegseth van Jost. “We’ll call you right back.”

Johnson’s Trump returned to the podium to conclude the press conference. “Even I know you’re doing that wrong,” he said, pointing to Jost’s over-boosted Hegseth. “The midterms are canceled,” he declared before launching into the classic “Live from New York, it’s ‘Saturday Night” transition to the credits.

In the final minutes of the show, before the cast gathered on stage for the traditional closing, the show paid tribute to Bob Weir, the founding member of the Grateful Dead, who died on January 10 at the age of 78. The legendary jam band, also led by the late Jerry Garcia, appeared twice on “SNL,” first in 1978 and then two years later.

(Pictured: James Austin Johnson as Donald Trump and Colin Jost as Pete Hegseth out in the cold for the Jan. 17 episode of “Saturday Night Live.”)