If it feels hard to wrap your mind around the idea that the current president of the United States, Donald Trump, danced to Drake’s “Hotline Bling†on Saturday Night Live shortly after launching his presidential campaign, you’re not the only one. While a guest of MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell on Friday, head writer Colin Jost revisited POTUS’s November 2015 appearance on the late-night show, which he describes in his recent memoir, A Very Punchable Face, as akin to the Confederate monuments being torn down in various cities across the country this summer. “There have been some hosts over the years who are real ‘Confederate statues’ of entertainment,†he wrote. “And that episode of SNL has not aged well, politically or comedically.â€
When asked about his comments, Jost implies he and the Saturday Night Live crew simply had the same Trump experience many other people do, including the numerous former colleagues who have left or been ousted from the current administration. “I write about it in the book because I wanted people to have a sense of what that was like behind the scenes,†Jost says, as a clip of the episode plays. “All these clips are so surreal when you look back. I think it also speaks to what he’s done, and how he can feel charming or even manipulative sometimes with people.â€
“You can see it. Think about it with all the people in his administration that he’s gone through, and people that have learned that lesson, and are now writing books about it,†laughs Jost. “You know, I wanted people to be able to understand what was going on while he hosted, and what that week was like, because it was a pretty weird week for us on a lot of levels.â€
In A Very Punchable Face, the Weekend Update host also says he was impressed by Trump’s attendance at every rehearsal, despite running for president at the time. Writes Jost, “I think most people at our show thought, ‘Huh. This guy isn’t a monster after all.’â€