Alec Baldwin As Donald Trump: Actor Slams President’s ‘Limited’ Vocabulary
Alec Baldwin in his role as Donald Trump has amused audiences around the world with a few notable exceptions, such as the U.S. President himself. And on last night’s episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Baldwin shared some interesting insights on how he had started out impersonating Trump and how he has grown in this role in more than a year’s time. And he also wasn’t able to resist another dig at the president; specifically how he tends to use a limited vocabulary when making his speeches.
As the future 45th President of the United States was on the campaign trail, Alec Baldwin was cutting his first Trump impersonations on Saturday Night Live, earning rave reviews from casual viewers and entertainment writers alike. But it was only after Trump won the 2016 U.S. presidential elections when those impressions caught the would-be President’s attention. In one of his trademark Twitter rants, Trump said that he found “nothing funny” about the November 19, 2016, episode of SNL, which also included Kate McKinnon’s impression of Trump counselor Kellyanne Conway. He added that the episode made for a “totally one-sided, biased show.”
But what was it like to impersonate someone who is now the most powerful man in the United States? According to Alec Baldwin, his first Donald Trump impersonation left him with no clue as to what he should be doing. As such, he didn’t have a choice but to wing it and hope everything would turn out fine, as the New York Times said in a report that cited Baldwin’s appearance on this week’s Jimmy Kimmel Live!
“I had no idea what I was going to do. I mean literally the moment I walked out there, I just said to myself, ‘Eyebrow out.’ I tried to stick my face out, my mouth out. I was in the makeup room, they’re putting my wig on, and it was like a scene from a mental hospital: I’m getting the wig on me and I’m sitting there the whole time going, ‘China, China,’ again and again, until you don’t think about it.”
#stufftrumpisafraidof The White House Correspondence dinner. They should invite Alec Baldwin instead – GREAT REPLACEMENT! pic.twitter.com/bbWolVyA4S
— #RemoveTrump (@Blue______Wave) February 26, 2017
More than a year has passed since the first Trump impersonation on Saturday Night Live. Since that time, Baldwin has become more comfortable in his role and more familiar with the President’s quirks. These quirks, Alec suggests, include a tendency to use the same word instead of using something different and more meaningful.
“To me, Trump was someone who, he’s always searching for a stronger, better word, and he never finds it. So whenever you do Trump, he’ll sit there going, ‘These people, they’re great people, they’re fantastic people, and I just want to say working with them was,’ and then he goes: ‘a fantastic experience.'”
Jimmy Kimmel also added his own two cents to the matter, suggesting that Trump “needs a thesaurus” due to the “limited” one he currently has. Adding to what Kimmel said, Baldwin added that the President “has a pamphlet thesaurus.”
Alec Baldwin is now well-known for his Donald Trump impersonations, but he also plans to take things to another form of media, as ABC News reported yesterday. According to ABC News, Baldwin will be teaming up with radio host Kurt Andersen to write a satirical book about Trump called You Can’t Spell America Without Me: The Really Tremendous Inside Story of My Fantastic First Year as President Donald J. Trump. The publication also quoted a humorous promotional blurb for the book, hinting at what readers could expect when it is released in November.
“(The book will include) genius backroom strategy sessions with White House advisers. (Trump’s) triumphs over the dishonest news media. The historic, world-changing decisions —many of them secret until now.”
With the new book and considering how he’s since found his comfort zone as the President, it’s safe to say that Alec Baldwin’s Donald Trump impressions aren’t going away soon.
[Featured Image by John Moore/Getty Images]
