‘SNL’ star wears Clemson shirt in skit mocking Trump for shutdown, fast-food feast
A “Saturday Night Live” cast member donned a Clemson sweatshirt during a skit mocking President Donald Trump for the ongoing government shutdown.
The first “SNL” episode of 2019 opened with a skit titled “Deal or No Deal: Government Shutdown Edition,” modeled after the TV game show “Deal or No Deal.” Alec Baldwin portrayed Trump rejecting deals to end the shutdown offered by various members of Congress, hours after Trump himself proposed a deal to obtain funding for his border wall and reopen the government.
As host Steve Harvey, portrayed by Kenan Thompson, says they are about to take a commercial break, Baldwin, as Trump says, “No, wait. I want to open that case from the Clemson football player.”
The camera then shows “SNL” cast member Pete Davidson wearing an orange Clemson sweatshirt and holding not one of the silver brief cases that contain deals on the TV show, but a “Crave case” from the fast-food restaurant White Castle.
Davidson opens the case, revealing a card that says “Hamberders,” a jab at the typo in a since-deleted tweet by Trump a day after he hosted the Clemson Tigers football team at the White House to celebrate their national championship.
Burger King, one of the chains that catered the White House dinner, even had some fun with the typo the day after the dinner.
“Oh, Steve. I haven’t eaten a hamberder in almost 15 minutes. I’m gonna make that deal,” Baldwin said.
“You ending the shutdown for a hamberder?” Thompson said in response. “Well, I guess that makes as much sense as anything else that’s going on these days.”
The skit ended with all three men staring into the camera and yelling the show’s signature line: “Live from New York, it’s Saturday night!”
Trump generated a social media frenzy after having food catered from fast food restaurants like McDonald’s and Wendy’s when he hosted the Clemson team last week to celebrate their national championship win over Alabama.
The White House said Trump footed the bill for the fast food because much of the staff was furloughed due to the partial government shutdown.
This story was originally published January 20, 2019 at 12:11 PM.