Ashley Padilla Cemented Her ‘SNL’ Star Status in Trump Cold Open

This week, Saturday Night Live was in attack mode against the President after thousands of Jeffrey Epstein’s emails were released, a trove of correspondence that contained numerous mentions of Donald Trump. Because of the chaotic circumstances of the week's events, the show’s cold open didn’t need to stray too far outside of the realm of reality in order to land plenty of hits. 

On November 12, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt held a press conference addressing—or trying to avoid—the story's latest bombshell developments. While the five-minute sketch was filled with great lines and the usual excellent Trump impression from James Austin Johnson, it was Ashley Padilla as Leavitt who really stole the show. 

So far in Season 51, Padilla has emerged as one of the show’s strongest and most versatile performers. And in Saturday’s cold open, she confirmed that she will be central to the show’s success in the future. Padilla playing Leavitt straight is one of the best political impersonations that’s been on the show; it satirizes Leavitt without making her come across as either sympathetic or too stupid to understand what she’s participating in. 

Instead, Padilla’s Leavitt knows exactly who she’s speaking for. The character repeatedly tries to redirect reporters away from questions about Trump’s knowledge of Epstein’s criminal activities, at any cost. Because of the real Epstein news that came out this week, SNL had more latitude to get explicit with the jokes, giving Padilla the opportunity to pair her acting chops with razor-sharp dialogue. 

“I am just so excited to be here and answer your friendly questions,” Leavitt begins. “As you all know, there was no news this week. Nothing happening with the president; no weird information was revealed. No one had any accusations that rhyme with -edophile.”

As reporters peppered Padilla’s Leavitt with questions, you could feel her desperate panic start to rise. She desperately tried to counter Epstein-related questions with other distractions. 

An MSNBC reporter (Bowen Yang) asks: “Are you not worried about the optics of Trump giving Epstein’s partner in crime, Ghislaine Maxwell, a sweetheart deal?”

“Hey!” Padilla snaps. “Ghislaine Maxwell said in the sworn deposition she gave to Trump's friend that Trump always acted like a gentleman. And a little thing about me, I believe women.”

It was a perfect line delivery from an energetic and fresh performance, the clear standout from the cold open. It was so good that Johnson's Trump wasn't needed at all. Maybe with this news cycle and Padilla as the anchor of the sketch, SNL can pull off a season full of political cold opens that are actually worth watching.