SNL Mocks Donald Trump, Pete Hegseth

What happened

Saturday Night Live mocked President Donald Trump’s Nobel Peace Prize disappointment and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s plan to livestream an execution. On Weekend Update, Colin Jost joked that Trump expected to win despite his military actions, while Michael Che joked about Trump bombing a country. The 2026 Nobel Peace Prize went to South African human rights lawyer Navi Pillay, after Trump had repeatedly sought the award. The Pentagon confirmed plans to livestream the scheduled December firing-squad execution of Nidal Malik Hasan, a former Army major convicted in the 2009 Fort Hood shooting. Trump criticized the Nobel Committee’s choice and said he deserved the prize. The livestream was planned for December.

How each side covered it

From the left

Left-leaning outlets framed the sketches as a rebuke of cruelty, authoritarian imagery and Trump’s grievance over the Nobel Prize. Daily Beast emphasized SNL attacking Hegseth’s execution plan as disturbing and punitive. Rolling Stone focused on Trump as entitled to an award it cast as clashing with his warmaking. HuffPost lingered on the sketch’s portrayal of Hegseth as indifferent to sailors’ hardship.