Alec Baldwin Was a Perfect Donald Trump on Saturday Night Live

Amagansett’s Alec Baldwin has been receiving high praise for his spot-on impression of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump during the cold open sketch of Saturday Night Live‘s season premiere over the weekend, and he deserves every bit of it.

Baldwin, who has hosted SNL 16 times, was not the night’s host on Saturday, but as a longtime friend of the show and vocal critic of Trump, he took on the role and did it better than any former cast member, including both Darrell Hammond and Taran Killam. SNL executive producer Lorne Michaels, a fellow Hamptonite, cast Baldwin as the outspoken candidate over the summer. Perhaps he heard Baldwin’s pitch-perfect impression during a Hamptons get together?

Of course it wasn’t just Baldwin’s Trump impression that led to such a memorable 9.5 minutes of comedy gold. On Monday, September 26, the first presidential debate of this election was so full of ludicrous moments that the SNL writers would have had to be pretty off their game not to deliver at least some brilliant satire and parody. And as Democratic nominee and Hamptons regular Hillary Clinton, SNL star Kate McKinnon was an excellent foil for Baldwin’s Trump.

Much like Tina Fey‘s famous Sarah Palin impression in 2008, which often repeated almost exactly what Palin actually said, many of the jokes were sadly not that far from Trump and Clinton’s actual words at the podium on Monday. Take a look at the video and decide for yourself.

Let’s hope Baldwin returns to SNL for more Trump fun soon!