Pete Hegseth addresses the USS Lincoln in SNL Cold Open
SNL’s cold open sends Colin Jost’s Pete Hegseth to greet the USS Abraham Lincoln crew, with James Austin Johnson as RFK Jr.
Saturday Night Live opened this week by handing Colin Jost a promotion. Jost suited up as Pete Hegseth, the head of the newly rebranded Department of Defense War, for the cold open.
Hegseth welcomes the crew of the USS Abraham Lincoln home after 10 months at sea, one of the longest naval deployments since the Vietnam War. His victory lap doesn’t go as planned. The sailors make it clear that, one, they’re not thrilled with him, and two, they have some serious questions about the Pentagon’s new “Nazi eagle” logo.
“It’s an American eagle, with a Nazi vibe,” Hegseth clarifies quickly.
James Austin Johnson, usually busy playing Trump, popped up as Health Secretary RFK Jr. for a nice change of pace. He assured the crew that the country they’d come home to is healthier than ever, give or take the handful of new viruses that have cropped up from recent food-borne illness outbreaks.