Overview
- U.S. and Israeli forces launched strikes on Iran early Saturday after Trump’s eight-minute Truth Social address citing an imminent nuclear threat, a rationale entertainment outlets and SNL’s script openly questioned.
- Multiple outlets reported that Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed in the attacks, with rights groups cited by Rolling Stone also reporting civilian casualties and injuries.
- Saturday Night Live scrapped a planned State of the Union opener and produced a new sketch within hours, featuring James Austin Johnson’s Trump declaring he was “bored of peace” and joking the war helps distract from the Epstein files.
- Colin Jost’s Pete Hegseth appearance referenced “Operation Epic Fury” and a mock justification for the timing, while Weekend Update resurfaced a 2011 clip of Trump warning Obama against starting a war with Iran and joked about the lack of a congressional vote.
- Celebrities including Rosie O’Donnell, Mark Ruffalo, John Cusack and Jack White condemned the strikes on social media, while some figures praised the action, and commentators criticized SNL’s near-immediate satire as too soon.