--- title: Alec Baldwin: Saturday Night Live Donald Trump interview description: Alec Baldwin finally opens up about the creative process on Donald Trump for SNL. canonical: https://time.com/4563022/alec-baldwin-donald-trump-snl-impression/ author: Ashley Hoffman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-11-08T21:54:35.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:38:30.791Z og:title: Alec Baldwin Reveals What Goes Into His Donald Trump Impression og:description: It's so much more than the hair og:url: https://time.com/4563022/alec-baldwin-donald-trump-snl-impression/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf322ff94dbcec15f/6988ad7ffb4eac6d4488fcbd/gettyimages-621448274.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Saturday Night Live - Season 42 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Alec Baldwin Reveals What Goes Into His Donald Trump Impression twitter:description: It's so much more than the hair twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf322ff94dbcec15f/6988ad7ffb4eac6d4488fcbd/gettyimages-621448274.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Alec Baldwin on Impersonating Donald Trump: 'He Is the Head Writer of His Own Comedy Routine' by [Ashley Hoffman](https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/) ## Ashley Hoffman Nov 8, 2016 9:54 PM UTC  SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE -- "Benedict Cumberbatch" Episode 1709 -- Pictured: (l-r) Kate McKinnon as Democratic Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton and Alec Baldwin as Republican Presidential Candidate Donald Trump during the "Hillary Clinton / Donald Trump Cold Open" sketch on November 5, 2016 -- (Photo by: Alex Schaefer/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images) SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE -- "Benedict Cumberbatch" Episode 1709 -- Pictured: (l-r) Kate McKinnon as Democratic Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton and Alec Baldwin as Republican Presidential Candidate Donald Trump during the "Hillary Clinton / Donald Trump Cold Open" sketch on November 5, 2016 -- (Photo by: Alex Schaefer/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images)NBBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images by [Ashley Hoffman](https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/) ## Ashley Hoffman Nov 8, 2016 9:54 PM UTC Alec Baldwin opened up about the process behind his _Saturday Night Live_ [Donald Trump impression](https://t.co/d4qFTPWr0P), the show’s most fleshed out portrayal yet. The _30 Rock_ star appeared on WNYC’s The Brian Lehrer Show Tuesday to explain his feelings toward the [Republican nominee](http://time.com/4527860/trump-machine-fortune-teller/), who has been a ripe target for comedians. “I don’t hate Trump, but he’s not somebody I admire, so it was more difficult,” he said. He then went on to explain that he mostly relied on the show’s writers, and crafted the “caricature” from observing Trump at his public appearances. (After all, the show presented a goofball struggling in the spotlight rather than true satire.) He also revealed that at first, he turned down the chance to take up the mantle when Lorne Michaels approached him on the advice of Baldwin’s former co-star, [Tina Fey](http://time.com/4515769/lorne-michaels-alec-baldwin-donald-trump-tina-fey/). “I said, well I don’t want to do that, I don’t think I can do that,” Baldwin said. “I mean, he had Taran Killam and Darrell Hammond, he had a couple of people who were in his compound there, who could do it I thought better than me. And I thought, I don’t want to do it, I don’t think I can. But you get lucky and I also think that people were ready to take in that version of him, which is so aggressive.” The nominee himself took to Twitter to [slam Baldwin’s impression](http://time.com/4533134/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-debate-saturday-night-live/), and Baldwin’s brother, [Stephen](http://time.com/4538669/stephen-baldwin-alec-baldwin-on-donald-trump-impression/), a Trump supporter also said that it was “a little too nasty” during a high-stakes election. For a show that stretched Hillary Clinton to maniacal extremes as it often has over the years, tellingly, the Trump sound bytes the show selected from the presidential debates tracked closely with the real versions. Case in point, Baldwin noted: “of course, he is the head writer of his own comedy routine, everything he just supplied to us.” Watch a comparison of Trump _SNL_ imagined to Trump for real above and listen to the full interview below. \[[_WNYC_](http://www.wnyc.org/story/alec-baldwin-sheds-trump-impressions-election-day/)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4563022/alec-baldwin-donald-trump-snl-impression/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4563022/alec-baldwin-donald-trump-snl-impression/"},"headline":"Alec Baldwin on Impersonating Donald Trump: 'He Is the Head Writer of His Own Comedy Routine'","datePublished":"2016-11-08T21:54:35.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:38:30.791Z","description":"\"I don't hate him...I don't admire him\"","url":"https://time.com/4563022/alec-baldwin-donald-trump-snl-impression/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Television","Donald Trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf322ff94dbcec15f/6988ad7ffb4eac6d4488fcbd/gettyimages-621448274.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ashley Hoffman","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf322ff94dbcec15f/6988ad7ffb4eac6d4488fcbd/gettyimages-621448274.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Saturday Night Live - Season 42","caption":"Saturday Night Live - Season 42","creditText":"NBBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images","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/4563022/alec-baldwin-donald-trump-snl-impression/","name":"Alec Baldwin on Impersonating Donald Trump: 'He Is the Head Writer of His Own Comedy Routine'"}}]}] ```