--- title: Alec Baldwin Returns as Donald Trump to SNL Weekend Update description: On Thursday’s SNL’s Weekend Update: Summer Edition, Alec Baldwin returned as President Trump to bid farewell to Steve Bannon. canonical: https://time.com/4915771/alec-baldwin-saturday-night-live-steve-bannon/ author: Entertainment Weekly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-08-25T14:56:09.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:46:47.744Z og:title: Alec Baldwin Returns to 'SNL' to Send Off Steve Bannon og:description: Bannon was depicted as the Grim Reaper og:url: https://time.com/4915771/alec-baldwin-saturday-night-live-steve-bannon/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1fd3b9d82e1c6639/6988db2b4ee262717e30eb91/donald-trump-alec-balwin-steve-bannon.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: donald-trump-alec-balwin-steve-bannon og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Alec Baldwin Returns to 'SNL' to Send Off Steve Bannon twitter:description: Bannon was depicted as the Grim Reaper twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1fd3b9d82e1c6639/6988db2b4ee262717e30eb91/donald-trump-alec-balwin-steve-bannon.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Alec Baldwin Returns to _Saturday Night Live_ to Bid Adieu to Steve Bannon by [Derek Lawrence / Entertainment Weekly](https://time.com/author/entertainment-weekly/) ## Derek Lawrence / Entertainment Weekly Aug 25, 2017 2:56 PM UTC  Hulu by [Derek Lawrence / Entertainment Weekly](https://time.com/author/entertainment-weekly/) ## Derek Lawrence / Entertainment Weekly Aug 25, 2017 2:56 PM UTC Not even summer vacation can keep Alec Baldwin away from _Saturday Night Live._ On Thursday’s _SNL’s Weekend Update: Summer Edition_ Baldwin — who’s Emmy-nominated for his portrayal of the president — returned to mock Trump’s recent rally in Arizona and his response to the Charlottesville, Virginia, white nationalist rallies. Playing off of [Trump staring directly at the sun during Monday’s eclipse](http://ew.com/tv/2017/08/21/donald-trump-looked-at-the-eclipse/), Baldwin first appeared wearing sunglasses. After sharing his excitement to see a [lone black man (cast member Kenan Thompson) positioned directly behind him](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/08/23/the-strange-story-of-that-blacks-for-trump-guy-standing-behind-potus-at-his-phoenix-rally/?utm%5Fterm=.aefe555be1ca), Baldwin’s president addressed the [violent events in Charlottesville](http://ew.com/news/2017/08/12/jk-rowling-calls-out-trump-charlottesville/) and the reactions to his multiple responses. “As we all know, there was a tragic victim that came out of Charlottesville: me,” said Baldwin as Trump. “Folks, the media has treated me so unfairly by reporting all of my remarks, even the bad ones.” Wanting to prove the media wrong, he vowed to read the full transcript of his speeches, but upon condemning the white nationalists, he quickly cut himself off before he going into his [“both sides” comments](http://ew.com/tv/2017/08/15/trump-both-sides-comments/). (The real Trump neglected to repeat his criticized remarks this week while repeating his speeches.) Baldwin’s Trump also wanted to give a proper goodbye to his [recently departed chief strategist](http://ew.com/news/2017/08/18/steve-bannon-out-white-house-reactions/), Steve Bannon. As previously depicted, the _SNL_ Bannon emerged as the Grim Reaper. “You’ve only made me more powerful,” he declared with an evil laugh. “I’m going to crush you.” Watch the clip above. _This_ [_article_](http://ew.com/tv/2017/08/24/snl-weekend-update-alec-baldwin-trump-returns-bannon-charlottesville/) _originally appeared on_ [_EW.com_](http://www.ew.com) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4915771/alec-baldwin-saturday-night-live-steve-bannon/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4915771/alec-baldwin-saturday-night-live-steve-bannon/"},"headline":"Alec Baldwin Returns to Saturday Night Live to Bid Adieu to Steve Bannon","datePublished":"2017-08-25T14:56:09.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:46:47.744Z","description":"Bannon was dressed as the Grim Reaper","url":"https://time.com/4915771/alec-baldwin-saturday-night-live-steve-bannon/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Television"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1fd3b9d82e1c6639/6988db2b4ee262717e30eb91/donald-trump-alec-balwin-steve-bannon.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Derek Lawrence / Entertainment Weekly"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1fd3b9d82e1c6639/6988db2b4ee262717e30eb91/donald-trump-alec-balwin-steve-bannon.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"donald-trump-alec-balwin-steve-bannon","caption":"","creditText":"Hulu","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4915771/alec-baldwin-saturday-night-live-steve-bannon/","name":"Alec Baldwin Returns to Saturday Night Live to Bid Adieu to Steve Bannon"}}]}] ```