This has been a horrible week for Donald Trump, pretty much just because everybody has finally realized he is exactly who he’s always been. An eleven-year-old Access Hollywood recording of Trump bragging about sexual assault did what 15 months of openly racist and sexist stump speeches and years of racist anti-Obama conspiracy-mongering couldn’t do: force many prominent Republicans to act like they actually have principles and rescind their support for Trump’s campaign. Basically the campaign bus had a simultaneous four-tire blowout, and the only folks who have stuck around to try and fix it are the Breitbarts and Drudge Reports of the world. Even Mike Pence, Trump’s VP partner and a man whose ability to not projectile vomit out streams of bile whenever he opens his mouth has helped hide his own horrible anti-woman opinions, has left Trump on the side of the road for a spell, pulling out of all campaign events for a few days. And this came out the same week as the revelations about Trump’s 1995 tax returns and a variety of other breaking news items of varying severity. Trump has had bad weeks on top of bad weeks inside of bad weeks before, but nothing yet has compared to the non-stop scandals that have broken basically every day so far in October.
Somehow this professional buffoon and clown man has turned himself into an even bigger, easier target for comedy shows. Saturday Night Live might seem a little hypocritical bashing the guy today—this was the same show that gave him a hosting gig less than a year ago, well into his campaign and well after he had already made some of his most hateful comments about Mexicans and immigrants, and that still treats him with relative kid gloves compared to other late-night shows—but it’s also a show that loves to tout its own importance, especially during election years, so obviously it was going to have to address the ever-rising mountain of muck that Trump is now trapped underneath. Last night’s episode didn’t waste any time, devoting its cold open to Trump’s horrible week after a short feint at a vice-presidential debate parody. As with so much of what Trump says and does, it’s basically a comedy version of a lay-up, but between some sharp writing, Alec Baldwin’s creepily effective Trump impression and Kate McKinnon’s utter reliability, it might be the best SNL political sketch of this entire election. Or at least it would be if it wasn’t for another sketch that aired later in the same episode…