When did Leslie Jones quit Saturday Night Live? SNL alum recalls joking about Trump during his 2015 appearance on the show

Comedian and actress Leslie Jones looked back on what she said about Donald Trump when he appeared on Saturday Night Live in 2015. Jones, who left SNL in 2019, was a guest on The Last Laugh Podcast. During the conversation, when asked about the time Trump came to the show with his family, she recalled that he arrived at the Table Read room and seemed nervous like a little boy.

Sharing her personal opinion, Jones stated that she had never taken Trump seriously. Recalling the backstage moment, she said:

“Everybody was so uptight and scared, and I just remember sitting at the host meal. I had to go to the host meal and Kenan, for some reason, wasn’t there. I usually didn’t go to the host meal unless Kenan went. But Taran [Killam] was there.”

Seated beside Leslie Jones on the table was Trump, his wife, Melania, their daughter, Ivanka, her husband Jared, and others from the show. She said:

“So I looked at Taran and I said, ‘If I kill this whole side of the table, maybe I’ll save the world.’ And then Taran was like, ‘Let me get my food to go first, because I don’t wanna be here when you do that.’”

Leslie Jones said that when she thinks about that day and her thoughts, she ponders if she was supposed to do that. She added:

“I would’ve saved the world! I would be in jail, but I would’ve saved the world.”

Leslie Jones on wanting to play Trump on SNL and her thoughts on leaving the show

Podcast host Matt Wilstein mentioned that he loved the time Leslie Jones auditioned for Donald Trump’s role on SNL. Jones said she was proud of that role because she was excited about the opportunity. She remembered going up to Lorne [Michaels], asking for the role. The comedian said:

“It would p*** him off and I would play him so good. And Lorne was like, no. So I was like, this is f***ed up, Lorne, you don’t never let me play stuff that I like to do. And I forgot who ended up writing it.”

Leslie Jones went on to say:

“So we did it, and when we got to do the office thing, Lorne kept saying, you’re not gonna be Trump, but I’m gonna let you beat me up. So that was really fun. It was tedious because the director, I didn’t really like him, but it turned out to be a really good pre-tape.”

Matt asked Leslie Jones if it was hard for her to leave the show, and she said it was very tough. She explained that most people stay for about seven years, but she knew she couldn’t do that. If she had joined when she was younger, she might have stayed for ten seasons.

However, since she was older, she felt the show had started turning her into a version of herself instead of giving her new roles. She also noticed that whenever she appeared in a sketch, she ended up becoming the main focus, even if she didn’t say anything.

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