While it is has been made clear that the folks behind the scenes at SNL weren’t very excited for Donald Trump as host, Taran Killam has likely been the most outspoken since he departed the show. Killam played Trump on SNL before Darrell Hammond made a quick return and Alec Baldwin took over at the beginning of season 42, so he was sort of in the line of fire when the then candidate hosted. He’s previously called the experience “not fun” and that neither the cast or Trump himself were “excited to be there.”
Killam also made it clear during an interview with NPR that the appearance by Trump is “something that only grows more embarrassing and shameful as time goes on” and seems to still hold that sentiment during this interview with Conan O’Brien on Monday. While he keeps the criticism of his former home at SNL at a minimum, even praising Lorne Michaels for his outlook that everybody is a guest when they come to SNL and should be treated as such. But with that, he does admit that the current president is a hard pill to swallow and has only gotten crazier with time.
One story he shares with Conan involves the dinner that usually happens with some members of the cast and the host during the week, and Killiam had the honor of going with Trump. It was there that he says he heard something from Trump that was shocking at the time and has only grown more shocking now that he is in the White House, mostly because it acts as a sign of what we’d see from the Trump presidency:
“You know listen, If I don’t win this thing, I’m going to be fine. We just bought this huge property in Scotland. If I have to be president, I’m never going to see that thing!”
Killam points out that this isn’t an entirely true statement given the amount of time Trump has been on the golf course to this point. We’re not sure he’s been to Scotland that much, though, and has had some trouble with the locals too.
Conan closes the chat out by making it clear that he doesn’t think SNL is to blame for the election, but he also jokingly changes his stance as soon as Killam agrees with him. And while it’s doubtful that had any real push in the final vote tally, it is something the show has had to make up for in the time since then.
(Via Team Coco)
