“Trump’s out here killing it… and by it, I mean my career.” That was the line Saidah Belo-Osagie delivered as Nicki Minaj on the October 31 Halloween episode of “Saturday Night Live,” and it landed as one of the sharpest digs of the night.
The cold open cast Belo-Osagie’s Minaj as Donald Trump’s next pick for press secretary. It’s a bit with real roots, since the joke grew out of actual chatter coming from the White House itself.
The sketch played out inside a haunted attraction called “Tombs of Doom,” with Kenan Thompson as the guide.
A couple’s Halloween ride got hijacked by James Austin Johnson’s Trump, and Veronika Slowikowska’s Katie Zacharia flubbed the show’s opening line along the way.
Johnson’s Trump also fixated on the Minaj character’s backside, suggesting he could appreciate it if it belonged to a man. “I could admire it,” he said, in a moment that pushed the parody into the strange territory SNL loves to mine.
Tom Hanks returned as David S. Pumpkins, the cult character he first played back in 2016. Johnson’s Trump compared himself with Pumpkins, joking that both showed up in 2016 and were loud, orange and annoying.
The press secretary idea didn’t come out of nowhere. On October 25, White House communications director Steven Cheung shared an Air Force One video of Minaj and Trump talking, and his caption floated her for the job.
In that clip, Minaj praised Trump’s business background and the way he bounced back from money trouble. She also complimented his stamina, and the two covered the economy, polling and his campaign workload.
Trump then gave the idea some oxygen during an interview with Benny Johnson. “That’s a good idea. I think I’ll have to think about that,” he said, also naming Johnson as another option, though he never offered Minaj the role or appointed her.
Minaj has gone fully public with her politics this cycle. At an October 25 rally in Port Huron, Michigan, she urged people to vote Republican in the November 3 midterms and pledged to back Trump if he ran again.
That shift is exactly what SNL zeroed in on. The career line frames her political turn as a risk to her standing with fans, which is a read plenty of people online have been voicing too, while her supporters see her as an artist who says what she thinks regardless of the fallout.
For Belo-Osagie, it was a big swing very early in her tenure. The New York comedian joined Season 52 as a featured player alongside Grace Reiter when the show premiered September 26.
Her background leans heavily on character work, including “UNSCRIPTED,” a reality TV parody variety show she’s been part of at Brooklyn’s Union Hall.
Landing a Minaj impression in a cold open within weeks of arriving puts her squarely in the spotlight.
Minaj herself hasn’t been quoted responding to the sketch so far. With the midterms days away and her name still floating around Washington, this probably won’t be the last time SNL comes back to her.
