Saturday Night Live Cold Open Channels "Hallelujah" Again, with Trump at the Keys

For its cold open this weekend, Saturday Night Live brought out its cavalcade of political impersonations to assemble the full Trump squad just in time for another rendition of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah."

The moment is a direct callback to the Dave Chappelle-hosted post-election episode, which opened with Kate McKinnon as Hillary Clinton playing the same iconic song. Then, it was about catharsis, over the recent passing of the musician who made this song and Clinton's electoral college loss -- but this time the performance seems a little more cynical.

Featuring Alec Baldwin's Donald Trump in the lead, his team slowly trickles in, with McKinnon as Kellyanne Conway, Beck Bennett as VP Mike Pence, and Alex Moffat and Mikey Day as Eric and Donald Trump Jr. Aidy Bryant also reprised her role as Sarah Huckabee Sanders, and even Scarlett Johansson returned to portray Ivanka Trump one more time because what SNL Trump troupe shot would be complete without his "Complicit" daughter? Of course, the lynchpin of this whole operation, the Grim Reaper Steve Bannon, had to come out to play, too.

When McKinnon performed "Hallelujah" on this stage in November, there was little levity to be found in the somber song, but after the lyrics were done, she said, "I'm not giving up, and neither should you."

Baldwin's Trump offered his own variation of the same sentiment: "I'm not giving up because I didn't do anything wrong, but I can't speak for these people."