Since debuting his impression of Donald Trump on Saturday Night Live’s October season premiere, Alec Baldwin has consistently drawn the ire of the president-elect, who has repeatedly taken to Twitter with harsh criticisms of the actor.
During a recent interview with Today show host Matt Lauer, Trump admitted that while he does like Baldwin personally, he finds his impression “mean-spirited and not very good.”
"I don't think his imitation of me gets me at all," Trump added. "And it's meant to be very mean-spirited, which is very biased. I don't like it. So I can tweet that out.”
Speaking of Twitter, Trump has used the social media platform to express his displeasure with Baldwin and SNL throughout the show’s latest season. Baldwin meanwhile, has embraced his role as a Trump critic, and has not shied away from publicly calling him out.
In the last episode of SNL in 2016, Baldwin poked fun at Donald Trump’s relationship with Russia’s president Vladmir Putin, setting up a scene where he gets a surprise visit from Putin during the holidays. Like old chums, Putin gifts Trump with a special “Elf on the Shelf” and advises him to put it next to his internet router all year. The jokes about Russia hacking the election continue.
After a particularly harsh sketch on the Dec. 4 episode, Trump wrote that Baldwin’s impression of him “just can't get any worse,” to which Baldwin replied “Release your tax returns and I'll stop.” Clearly that didn't happen, and Baldwin, along with SNL, have been going hard on Trump ever since.
The Baldwin vs. Trump feud has been going strong thanks to a series of sketches including this one, in which SNL mocked how truly unprepared Trump is for the presidency, and this one, where they ripped him for his infamous hot mic comments. In fact, Baldwin is so well versed in the word of Trump, that he admitted how much of a toll playing the future president has taken on him.
