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Saturday Night Live‘s Weekend Update mocked nearly every Trump administration official involved in the scandal of inadvertently providing attack plans to a journalist via a Signal group chat.
On Monday, The Atlantic reported that National Security Adviser Mike Waltz accidentally added the publication’s editor-in-chief to a chat in which Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth detailed plans for a forthcoming strike on Houthi rebels in Yemen.
In the days since, the Trump administration hasn’t been all too clear about what exactly happened, with Hegseth repeatedly denying that anyone was “texting war plans”–even though the White House itself confirmed the message chain’s authenticity–and Waltz simultaneously taking responsibility for the “embarrassing” error while suggesting that the reporter, Jeffrey Goldberg, could have somehow schemed his way into the chat. Additionally, Waltz on Tuesday denied that a staffer was at fault, yet that same day Donald Trump pointed the finger at someone working under Waltz.
As national security experts overwhelmingly dispute the administration’s contention that no information in the chat was classified, Waltz, it appears, still has a job only because Trump doesn’t want to give Democrats and the press “a win.”
About all this, co-anchor Colin Jost began: “This week, we learned ourentire national security teamhas the texting skills of myaunt Janet.”
“Of all people to accidentallyadd to the chat, it was the editor ofThe Atlantic.That’s like if you’re planning asurprise quinceañera and cc’edJared from Subway,” Jost joked.
Jost then took a shot at Elon Musk when noting the type of emojis Waltz typed: a fist, the U.S. flag, and a fire, the last of which was really “the Tesla emoji.”
“Waltz later explained – thiswas his real explanation – thatthe journalist’s number musthave gotten ‘sucked onto’his phone,” he added. “Worse, he then tried to get ridof the number by saying, ‘Siri,how do I suck the journalistoff?’”
As for Hegseth’s denial, which included the line, “And that’s all I have to say about that,” Jost compared the former Fox News co-host to Forrest Gump.
“He went full Gump–except Hegseth’s life ismore like a box of wine,” he joked of the man who has been accused of alcohol abuse.
Michael Che then moved on to how Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem visited an infamous prison in El Salvador as part of a message to undocumented immigrants to “self-deport.” Yet to Che, Noem, who filmed a video in front of dozens of tattooed men behind bars while wearing a $50,000 watch, it seemed like she was there for something else: “trying to beat aworld record on OnlyFans.”
Jost, regarding Vice President JD Vance‘s visit to–and icy reception in–Greenland, then quipped that he was “delivering the administration’sclearest threat so far: Either Greenland joins the U.S., or the U.S. will keep sendingthem J.D. Vance.”
