--- title: Alec Baldwin on Donald Trump Interview description: In a new interview with Katie Couric, Baldwin shared further impersonations of the president-elect—and called Trump "malicious." canonical: https://time.com/4634959/alec-baldwin-on-trump-interview/ author: Raisa Bruner article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-01-13T20:32:48.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:40:10.760Z og:title: Alec Baldwin on Trump: "Everywhere He's Gone, He's Abused Power" og:description: In a new interview with Katie Couric, the actor called Trump "malicious." og:url: https://time.com/4634959/alec-baldwin-on-trump-interview/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfe443280f54048f2/6988b58ef887dcc263e98b01/alec-baldwin-trump1.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 on Trump: "Everywhere He's Gone, He's Abused Power" twitter:description: In a new interview with Katie Couric, the actor called Trump "malicious." twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfe443280f54048f2/6988b58ef887dcc263e98b01/alec-baldwin-trump1.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Alec Baldwin on Trump: 'Everywhere He's Gone, He's Abused Power'  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Jan 13, 2017 8:32 PM UTC  Alec Baldwin as Republican Presidential Candidate Donald Trump during the "Debate Cold Open" sketch on October 15, 2016. Alec Baldwin as Republican Presidential Candidate Donald Trump during the "Debate Cold Open" sketch on October 15, 2016.NBC—Getty Images  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Jan 13, 2017 8:32 PM UTC Alec Baldwin has made a name for himself as the [_Saturday Night Live’s_ official Donald Trump impersonator](http://time.com/4515908/snl-debate-alec-baldwin-kate-mckinnon-donald-trump/?iid=sr-link1) of our era, and in a new interview with Katie Couric on The _Katie Couric_ podcast, the forthcoming actor had plenty to say about the president-elect [he regularly lambasts.](http://time.com/4627658/alec-baldwin-donald-trump-snl-make-america-great-again-russian-hat/?iid=sr-link7) “Everywhere he’s gone, he’s abused power and people who are less powerful than him,” Baldwin said of the businessman-turned-politician. While Baldwin said that he did the “wrong thing a handful of times” himself, he said he saw Trump as a “malicious person,” when comparing him to other famous figures he impersonates. “Whether it was Tony Bennett or Pacino or DeNiro … there’s an element of appreciation for them,” he noted of his approach. “With Trump, I don’t have that element of appreciation, which makes it difficult,” he reflected. “The key to doing him was to be a man who paused regularly, almost metronomically paused, to dig for a better word—and never came up with a better word,” he explained of his process for the _SNL_ sketches. “I don’t say this to pile up on him or be mean or anything,” he insisted, but went on to explain that in his own experience, Trump is “not admired at all” in New York. “When you see Trump in social circles in New York, he was endured,” Baldwin said. Listen to the full hourlong interview, below. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4634959/alec-baldwin-on-trump-interview/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4634959/alec-baldwin-on-trump-interview/"},"headline":"Alec Baldwin on Trump: 'Everywhere He's Gone, He's Abused Power'","datePublished":"2017-01-13T20:32:48.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:40:10.760Z","description":"\"He was endured\"","url":"https://time.com/4634959/alec-baldwin-on-trump-interview/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Entertainment","celebrities"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfe443280f54048f2/6988b58ef887dcc263e98b01/alec-baldwin-trump1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Raisa Bruner","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfe443280f54048f2/6988b58ef887dcc263e98b01/alec-baldwin-trump1.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":"NBC—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/4634959/alec-baldwin-on-trump-interview/","name":"Alec Baldwin on Trump: 'Everywhere He's Gone, He's Abused Power'"}}]}] ```