SNL’s Weekend Update Lampoons Trump’s Awkward Xi Jinping Welcome and Hegseth’s Anti-Trans Military Decree

Saturday Night Live’s Weekend Update took aim at Donald Trump’s handling of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s state visit and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s inflammatory rhetoric regarding transgender service members.

“On Thursday, Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in D.C. for a state visit, and President Trump drove to meet him at the airport like a boyfriend with no job,” Colin Jost opened, referencing Xi’s arrival at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, where Trump rolled out a 100-foot red carpet. “Then Trump ordered military jets to do a flyover to project strength.”

Jost then cut to footage of the B-2 bomber flyover, which showed Trump visibly wincing beside a stoic Xi Jinping.

“I don’t know if he projected strength,” Jost quipped, “but it looked like he projected something.”

Later in the segment, Jost turned to Hegseth’s address this summer at Texas A&M University, where the Defense Secretary declared, “No more social experiments. Just training. No more trannies. Just training.”

Jost had a pointed follow-up. “Why were you even thinking about that, bud?” he asked. “This phrase sounds like something he repeats to stop himself from having uncomfortable fantasies.”

Co-anchor Michael Che then riffed on the administration’s launch of a 24/7 streaming channel, “Trump TV,” following the temporary removal of CNN, Politico, and MSNBC from the White House. “But if that’s Trump TV, what the hell is Paramount Plus?” Che joked, alluding to the platform’s slate of ranch-set dramas like 1883, Tulsa King, Dutton Ranch, and Yellowstone.

Che also commented on Mitch McConnell’s return to the Senate after a three-month absence caused by a fall and pneumonia. The 84-year-old senator has largely avoided reporters’ questions, instead flashing a peace sign—a gesture Che interpreted as showing “what he refuses to rest in.”

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