President-elect Donald Trump (played by James Austin Johnson) found a way to distract MSNBC from covering “tech billionaires buying our democracy” and the TikTok ban in the “Saturday Night Live” cold open this weekend.

The mock MSNBC inauguration week panel featured Joy Reid (played by Ego Nwodim), who declared that “this time around” the network wouldn’t be “sucked in by every new shiny, crazy statement” from Trump.

But the network abandoned Reid’s game plan within seconds as a breaking news alert appeared on the screen.

“Trump has apparently just told reporters that he would like to ‘trade Connecticut for Italy,’” said MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow (played by Sarah Sherman). “I mean, that’s just crazy.”

“Rachel, Rachel, see, this is what I mean. We can’t have a repeat of 2016,” Nwodim’s Reid urged.

The distractions, however, continued as Sherman’s Maddow read an alert about Johnson’s Trump telling wildfire victims that “Arnold Palmer had some of the longest balls in American history.”

She then read a message that the president-elect “tweeted,” writing that he “would end fire by filling the ‘UP’ house with water balloons!!!”

“This man was designed by the devil to break my spirit,” Nwodim’s Reid said. “You can just call me Ann Reid because the Joy is gone.”

Sherman’s Maddow then turned to a press conference where Trump remarked on the TikTok ban that went into effect this weekend.

“We may have to go over to [Instagram] Reels with Mark Zuckerberg. I like him now. Zuck, he looks better, much cooler in terms of perm and in regard to chain,” Johnson’s Trump said.

“And he will of course be at my inauguration, which will be indoors. Too many people to fit outside,” he added.

Check out more of the “SNL” cold open below.

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