It seems that Saturday Night Live’s “reinvention” of Donald Trump was originally supposed to involved a lot more than a simple fat suit.
During an appearance at the Skankfest comedy festival in Las Vegas that coincided with SNL’s 50th season premiere last weekend, comedian Shane Gillis told the crowd that he turned down an offer from Lorne Michaels to play Trump opposite Maya Rudolph’s Kamala Harris for the entirety of the 2024 campaign run—and possibly beyond.
“Nobody thought he was coming to this festival this year,” podcast host Luis J. Gomez says from the stage as he introduces Gillis in video footage from the event, adding that he “tried to cancel” a few days prior.
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“Explain why,” Gillis chimes in.
“Can I explain why?” Gomez asks. When Gillis gives him the “go ahead,” Gomez says, “Because he was offered to play Trump on the entire season of SNL and he turned it down to f---ing be here, folks!”
Confirming the story, Gillis himself adds, “They said, ‘Are you serious? You’re going to say no?’ I said, ‘Lorne, I gotta to go to Coke Magic.’”
The Daily Beast reached out to a representative for SNL to confirm or deny Gillis’ story but did not receive an immediate response.
After being fired by SNL just days after being hired to join the show as a featured player in 2019, before that season had even started, Gillis already had his (somewhat) triumphant debut on the show this past February when he came on as host. During that episode, Gillis showed off his impressive Trump impression in a taped sketch about the former president’s gold sneakers.
This led to some speculation that Gillis could play Trump as one of the show’s many guest stars during the fall election season, a move that may have been controversial but also oddly logical given his generally more anti-woke appeal. That rumor that was only fueled by Michaels telling The Hollywood Reporter last month that he was planning to “reinvent” Trump once again and suggesting that cast member James Austin Johnson (who succeeded Alec Baldwin in the role) might not return as the Republican candidate.
But when the show premiered last week, Johnson was back as Trump along side bigger names like Dana Carvey as Joe Biden, Jim Gaffigan as Tim Walz and Andy Samberg as Doug Emhoff. Johnson’s Trump was notably absent from the second episode of the season after making an appearance during the cold open that played at dress rehearsal but was reportedly cut for the live show.
In that same THR interview, Michaels made what can now be seen as a public overture to Gillis, calling the backlash to his initial hiring an “overreaction” and admitting that if he had stayed in the cast it “would’ve been really good for us.”
