“Saturday Night Live” kicked off its 52nd season with a familiar Donald Trump impression, an increasingly familiar presidential friendship and a brand-new character: White House aide Natalie Harp.
The season premiere opened Saturday with Ramy Youssef reprising his role as New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, delivering an update on the nor’easter battering the East Coast before James Austin Johnson’s Trump arrived unexpectedly.
“For some reason that no one can figure out, I really, really like you,” Johnson’s Trump told Mamdani, poking fun at the unlikely rapport between the president and the democratic socialist mayor.
But it was cast member Ashley Padilla’s debut as Harp that quickly stole the sketch.
A rain-soaked Harp burst into the room after supposedly running all the way from Washington, D.C., “Weapons-style,” a reference to the 2025 horror film. Johnson’s Trump then compared his devoted aide to a character from another horror movie.
“She’s like the girl from ‘Obsession’ but blond,” he said.
“I’m kidding, I’m kidding,” Padilla’s Harp responded. “I’m totally normal.”
She then pulled Mamdani close and issued a warning about Trump: “If you hurt him, I will end you.”
Harp, a longtime Trump aide sometimes nicknamed the “human printer” for providing the president with a steady stream of printed news articles and social media posts, has drawn renewed attention over her unusually close relationship with Trump. Reports this summer revealed intensely personal letters Harp sent Trump in 2023, including one telling him, “You are all that matters to me.”
SNL isn’t the only late-night show to turn Harp into a character.
Just two nights earlier, Jimmy Kimmel introduced his own clingy “assistant Natalie,” played by his wife and the show’s executive producer, Molly McNearney. The character hovered beside Kimmel during his Thursday monologue and offered to handle everything from his social media posts to his personal needs.
The back-to-back parodies mark a sudden pop-culture turn for a White House aide who has largely operated outside the spotlight.
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SNL, meanwhile, returned just weeks ahead of the midterm elections with politics firmly back in its repertoire. The premiere also took shots at the Trump administration’s fight with the press, the president’s meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping and his use of artificial intelligence during its “Weekend Update” segment.
The episode was hosted by New York Knicks captain Jalen Brunson, with KATSEYE as musical guest.
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