Dominican Newspaper Mistakes Alec Baldwin for Trump
Amagansett resident Alec Baldwin‘s much-loved—by most—Donald Trump impersonation on Saturday Night Live is pretty great, but it reached new heights last Friday when Dominican Republic newspaper El Nacional published a picture of the actor in his Trump wig and makeup instead of an actual photo of the president.
According to CNN, the newspaper published the photo with the caption “Donald Trump, president of the USA” to illustrate a news story about Israeli settlements. A picture of real Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, was printed alongside the image of Baldwin’s Trump.
The newspaper released a statement about the error the following day, CNN reports. “The situation went unnoticed by those who revised page 19,” the Dominican paper explained, adding, “El Nacional apologizes to its readers and anyone who felt affected.”
This could not have made Trump very happy. The president has been quite vocal about his displeasure with Baldwin’s impression of him, and has tweeted about it and his dislike of SNL more than once.
Trump first publicly lashed out against SNL after Baldwin’s third cold open sketch as the candidate way back in October, during the presidential debates between Trump and Hillary Clinton. The October 16 tweet read, “Watched Saturday Night Live hit job on me.Time to retire the boring and unfunny show. Alec Baldwin portrayal stinks. Media rigging election!”
Watched Saturday Night Live hit job on me.Time to retire the boring and unfunny show. Alec Baldwin portrayal stinks. Media rigging election!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 16, 2016
A month later, following Baldwin’s first post-election skit as Trump, the then president-elect tweeted, “I watched parts of @nbcsnl Saturday Night Live last night. It is a totally one-sided, biased show – nothing funny at all. Equal time for us?”
I watched parts of @nbcsnl Saturday Night Live last night. It is a totally one-sided, biased show – nothing funny at all. Equal time for us?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 20, 2016
Then, on December 4, following a particularly salient December 3 SNL skit lampooning Trump’s tweeting habit, the president-elect tweeted (without seeing the irony), “Just tried watching Saturday Night Live – unwatchable! Totally biased, not funny and the Baldwin impersonation just can’t get any worse. Sad.”
Just tried watching Saturday Night Live – unwatchable! Totally biased, not funny and the Baldwin impersonation just can’t get any worse. Sad
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 4, 2016
Clearly it couldn’t be that bad if Baldwin fooled El Nacional, right?