Trump and Pete Hegseth Try to Justify Iran War on ‘SNL’: ‘I Don’t Know What I’m Doing’

Variety ^ | February 28, 2026 | William Earl

[MinorityRepublican]

Clearly, the “Saturday Night Live” writing team had a lot of work to do on Saturday, as they opened the show with a sketch about President Trump’s early morning attack on Iran.

In the Feb. 28 cold open, Trump (played by James Austin Johnson) gives a press conference about the military action.

“It’s me, Donald Trump, FIFA Peace Prize winner and Nobel Peace Prize taker,” he began. “Remember that? I launched this attack after me and my board of peace…we were bored of peace. As we all know, Iran has been two weeks away from developing a nuclear weapon for like the last 15 years or something. So we had to act now, and we’re doing war.”

Trump soon brought out his secretary of war Pete Hegseth (played by Colin Jost) to speak on the military action.

“They asked for someone to volunteer to receive his half-baked operation, and I didn’t walk — I ran,” Jost-as-Hegseth said. “President Trump called me at two in the morning, and you know, I was awake, sober AF.”

Hegseth then admitted that “I don’t know what I’m doing.”

[MayflowerMadam]

Gilda Radner, Jane Curtin, Belushi ... Those were the days.

[MayflowerMadam]

Gilda Radner, Jane Curtin, Belushi ... Those were the days.

[rdcbn1]

This is pathetic and lame.

First off, the Trump and Hg's impersonations are absolutely talent less and atrocious and the content is cringe worthy.

SNL used to be funny back in the days before Jimmy Carter handed Iran over to the Ayatollahs

[Zathras]

SNL?
Seriously Nutty Liberals

[alexander_busek]

SNL used to be both funny and cutting-edge.

Now, they're not even "and."

Totally irrelevant!

Regards,

[Da Coyote]

Both of their viewers were greatly amused.

[laweeks]

Somebody was watching it?

[laweeks]

Somebody was watching it?

[delchiante]

Stopped reading at SNL

[webheart]

Saturday Night Live gave us Bill Murray, Dan Akroyd and Eddie Murphy. That was comedy. Then they gave us Amy Poehler and Maya Rudolph. Let’s just say that they have had better days and they were a long time ago.

[wardaddy]

Lorne Michaels can’t support his fellow Jews

What an asshöllio

[rktman]

Hasn’t been funny in decades.

[plain talk]

“Hegseth then admitted that “I don’t know what I’m doing.””

Just not funny regardless of one’s politics. The guys in this administration know exactly what they are doing.

Trump has some faults but incompetence isn’t one of them.

[catnipman]

“SNL has been leftist propaganda from the beginning.”

and even then not funny ... old seasons are on amazon and i tried to watch the first couple of the original episodes, and they were just stupid, particularly since the bulk of the shows were devoted to crapola no-name bands who never made it ... i would assume the show did get somewhat funnier after a while as the comedic cast developed their characters and skits, but wasn’t gonna waste any further ...

[The Louiswu]

[hcmama]

Calm down

[hcmama]

Calm down

[popdonnelly]

Not funny. Not sophisticated. Not worth watching.

[Vaduz]

Agree Hollywood is a pukefest has been for years.

Pacifist’s hand wringing club.

[SMARTY]

SNL behind the 8 ball, as usual