Former “Saturday Night Live” star Leslie Jones recalls Donald Trump being so nervous about hosting the show in 2015 that she comforted the future president, noting during an episode of the “Obsessed” podcast released Friday, “I didn’t know Trump was so evil.”
“I didn’t!” Jones told host Matt Wilstein. “He was ‘The Apprentice.’ He was a joke to me.”
She added, “I just thought he’s a fucking idiot. Like, I didn’t think he was who he was when he came to ‘SNL.’ Everybody was freaked out. I was not. I was like, no, you’re ‘The Apprentice’ — I’m not. You’re dumb shit. I wasn’t letting [celebrity hosts] get away with a lot of stuff.”
Jones likened Trump’s anxious demeanor to that of a little boy on the first day of school, which sparked her empathy and her mission to “to make people feel comfortable” on the show. The comedian also noted Trump seemed to require more attention than other hosts.
“But what people need to understand about comedians is that we see everything,” she said. “I see the insecurity, I see the fear, I see everything. So when he walked into the table read, he had all of his scripts in his hands like a little boy. And you could tell — he was lost in that.”
Jones recalled Trump taking a phone call during the table read, making some sort of business deal, and seizing the moment to reassure the reality TV star.
“I said, ’Trump, how much money did you just make, man?” Jones recalled. “How much money did you just make, Trump?! And he was like, ‘Ahhh, haha.’ And it’s just all he needed. But in my head I knew, that’s a little boy. That’s a little Biff from ‘Back to the Future.’”
Biff Tannen famously served as the villain in “Back to the Future” (1985) and seizes absolute power in the 1989 sequel over the fictional Hill Valley town as a casino magnate — using wanton intimidation, coercion and blackmail against local competitors and opponents.
Catch the bulk of Jones’ comments about Trump at 37:19:
While she hadn’t considered at the time what Trump would ultimately become, Jones said Saturday, “Yeah, he’s Biff, you know? And we let Biff become the president, and Biff let all his frat-boy friends take over and destroy the office. That’s what happened.”
The “SNL” alum has slammed Trump on numerous occasions since leaving the show in 2019. Her former colleague Taran Killam, meanwhile, denounced the show much sooner for having Trump host — and told NPR in 2017, “We could hear the protests during our table read.”
Killam continued at the time, “As we’re reading 40 mediocre sketches, we just hear, ‘No Trump! Donald Trump!’ … I am embarrassed, upon reflection, just because of how everyone was right. Every person outside of the building protesting was absolutely right.”