SNL Robert De Niro's Robert Mueller Visits Eric Trump: 'Your Dad's Friend from Work'

Saturday Night Live came out swinging this weekend with a cold open about Eric Trump receiving an unexpected visit from Robert Mueller, portrayed by Robert De Niro.

The Christmas Carol-like appearance―which took place at the bedside of the Trump son as he clutched a shark toy―featured a threatening Mueller ("your dad's friend from work") as the real-life investigation into the president's political affairs was heating up.

Read more: Who has Robert Mueller indicted? The full list so far

The segment opened with Donald Trump, Jr., played by Mikey Day, reading bedtime story The Night Before Christmas to Eric, played by Alex Moffat, and explaining words like "twas" and "contraction." As they speak, Eric hears a creaking coming from the closet.

"That's just the cheap steel dad uses to build his towers," Trump Jr. notes before being interrupted by a phone call from a lawyer. He says: "Hey how bad is it? Oh God, but can I flip on him?"

With Mueller suddenly beside Eric Trump's bed, the pair are left to have a friendly chat.

"Hey, no-one knows the full story yet," De Niro says. "You saw what I have put out, it's all been heavily redacted. You know what redacted is?" Moffat replies: "Uh huh. Like when my dad called Jeff Sessions mentally redacted." The president's son asks: "Mr Meuller, people say you are the worst thing to ever happen to my dad?" Before cutting to the welcome, De Niro deadpans: "No Eric, getting elected president was the worst thing that ever happened to your dad."

The show was hosted this week by "Game of Thones" and "Aquaman" star Jason Momoa.

"I have been watching this my whole entire life," Momoa said in his opening monologue. He joked: "There was a time when I actually wanted to quit acting, I wanted to move to New York and try to get cast on SNL. Fortunately, I got side-tracked by a massively successful career."

He then added: "This is probably one of the greatest moments of my life."

Later in the show, Momoa played a spirit in a skit about Ebenezer Scrooge and brought back his famous Game of Thrones character Khal Drogo in ghost form. The skit was a talk show format that chatted with characters who had been killed off during the series run―including Hodor, King Joffrey and the High Sparrow. Mumford & Sons also returned for a third appearance.

In the "Weekend Update" parody news segment this week, hosts Michael Che and Colin Jost poked fun at the president's ongoing legal issues. "Now we don't know for sure who Individual 1 is," Jost said, referring to the legal documents in the Michael Cohen case that referenced Trump by that term. "Let's just say things are getting tense right now over at Individual 1 Tower."

Che laid into the Trump administration's alleged plan to release a counter-report. "Well, you better hurry up buddy because you only get one hour a day on that prison computer," he stated, adding: "Nothing says you are guilty than making a counter report before the Mueller report is even out."

Uncommon Knowledge

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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.

About the writer


Jason Murdock is a staff reporter for Newsweek. 

Based in London, Murdock previously covered cybersecurity for the International Business Times UK ... Read more

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