The Trump Comedians Are Tired

In 2017, as Donald Trump was getting used to the White House furniture, Alec Baldwin was feeling exultant.

His impersonation of the new president on Saturday Night Live had made him momentarily inescapable and given the comedy show its highest ratings in years.

To capitalize on the momentum, Baldwin co-authored a book-length satirical memoir written from Trump’s perspective.

Baldwin’s autobiography—which also came out that year and was excerpted as a cover story for Vanity Fair —noted that his take on the president “seemed to delight nearly everyone in the People’s Republic of Manhattan.” When he accepted an Emmy for his performance in the fall, he addressed Trump directly: “At long last, Mr.

President, here is your Emmy.” It was disorienting, then, to hear Baldwin declare, when I spoke with him earlier this summer, that this sort of comedy has become stale, boring, and useless.

“None of it’s funny.

I don’t find it funny anymore,” he told me.

“There’s nothing left to say about Trump.” Clearly, something has changed—and not just for Baldwin, who effectively retired from the role back in 2020.

The first Trump administration was a boon for comedians and for television.

A cottage industry of new, politically inflected clip shows offered satirical commentary on the new president to a mostly liberal audience.

Late-night comedy adopted Jon Stewart’s old playbook, trading quippy gags for more full-throated (and sometimes outright defiant) critiques of government.

Ambiguity was out; everyone knew whose side these commentators were on, and other impersonators began vying for Baldwin’s crown.

But the bubble collapsed right around the moment of Joe Biden’s ascension, and Trump’s return to power hasn’t inspired the same volume of riffs.

Today, some of the comedians who rode the initial wave have come to feel a little like Baldwin does.