Shorouk Express
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Saturday Night Live’s cold open saw another blunder by top Trump administration figures as Pete Hegseth, JD Vance and Marco Rubio mistakenly added themselves to a high school girls’ text chain.
Oscar-winning actress Mikey Madison appeared in the skit, messaging her friends about boys and other teenage concerns before being abruptly interrupted by Hegseth – played by Andrew Dismukes – who derailed the conversation.
“FYI, green light on Yemen raid. Tomahawks airborne 15 minutes ago. Who’s ready to blast some Houthi rebels?” he said, adding multiple flag emojis and an eggplant emoji to the message.
It comes a week after it first emerged that senior Trump officials had inadvertently added Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, to a private chat on messaging app Signal, in which classified information was later shared.
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Hegseth later denied that any “war plans” were shared on the group chat, resulting in the outlet publishing the full message exchanges.
The SNL sketch also poked fun at a number of other recent government mishaps and controversial moments, including Vance’s awkward trip to Greenland, the botched release of the JFK assassination files, and the deportation of citizens by ICE.
Vance, played by Bowen Yang, entered to the teenagers’ group chat – dialing in from Greenland, in a nod to the vice president’s recent trip to the autonomous territory, with the Second Lady, Usha Vance.
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“How’s Greenland? I bet you’re killing it,” Dismukes said. “I’m not. Nobody knows why I’m here, especially me,” replied Yang, adding “But praise Trump, our work here is mysterious and important,” in a nod to hit show Severance.
A car horn then interrupted the conversation, with Madison saying, “Got to go, Matt’s here to pick me up. We’re going to a movie.”
“Who? Gaetz?” Dismukes questioned, in reference to former Republican congressman Matt Gaetz who was investigated by the House ethics panel over allegations of sex trafficking involving a 17-year-old girl. Gaetz has denied all wrongdoing.
“Actually, yeah!” Madison replied..
Rubio, played by Marcello Hernandez, later joined the SNL group chat offering to share the “real” JFK files, and “not those fake ones we released.” “Do not share!” he said.
After learning that the teenagers were in the group chat, he added: “We were totally pranking you guys, LOL. But would you mind emailing your names and home addresses to deportations@ice.gov?”
