Published June 7, 2026, 10:34 a.m. ET

James Austin Johnson may spend his weekends portraying Donald Trump on Saturday Night Live, but that doesn’t mean he’s eager to attract the president’s attention in real life.

The comedian drew one of the night’s biggest laughs during a post-screening discussion for Playing POTUS, a new documentary about presidential impersonations in American comedy, when he was asked whether he worries about potential repercussions for mocking Trump.

“Am I fearful of the crazy person who wields the military … and seems to target individuals?” Johnson replied. “Yeah, I hope my name never comes out of his mouth.”

The exchange took place after the June 6 Tribeca Festival premiere of the film, which explores the long-running tradition of comedians poking fun at U.S. presidents — particularly on Saturday Night Live.

Directed by Josh Greenbaum, Playing POTUS features interviews with comedy stars including Dana Carvey, Will Ferrell, Alec Baldwin, Maya Rudolph, Keegan-Michael Key, Chevy Chase and more. The documentary examines how presidential impressions have shaped public perception of political figures and why political satire remains such a defining part of American culture.

Following the screening, Greenbaum joined former SNL writers Jim Downey and Robert Smigel, along with Johnson, for a conversation about comedy, politics and the sketch show’s evolution over the decades.

Johnson, who has portrayed Trump on SNL since 2021, also offered some insight into how he approaches the role. Slipping briefly into his Trump voice, he described the president less as a politician and more as a guy who’s been cornering coworkers with rambling stories for years.

“I’m trying to think of a guy who’s been working in retail for like five decades, in a corner, in an uncomfortable chair somewhere, and he’s just doing that to whatever new worker is walking past,” Johnson said, according to USA Today. “I want to play it like it’s a man talking alone in a room, and he’d just be saying all that stuff.”

The panel later turned to a question that comes up frequently when actors and comedians portray controversial public figures: Do you need some degree of empathy to make the performance work?

The topic stems from one of the documentary’s interviews, in which Kate McKinnon says she felt “very protective” of Hillary Clinton while playing the former secretary of state on SNL.

Johnson made it clear his own relationship to Trump is somewhat different.

“If you can’t tell how I feel about Donald Trump from the way that I do him, you’re a moron,” he joked.

Still, he admitted that some audience members occasionally show up to his live performances expecting something else entirely.

“I think people come to my shows thinking that I love Donald Trump,” he said, noting that some eventually walk out.

Johnson also argued that one of Trump’s greatest political strengths is something many critics overlook.

“I think I play his charm a little bit more, maybe than Alec [Baldwin] did,” he said. “I think I play the secret weapon that he’s deployed, which is that he’s, you know, funny − intentionally and unintentionally, kind of a hilarious guy. That’s not really something I’m looking for when it’s time to vote for somebody, but it’s been extremely powerful.”

Elsewhere, Downey reflected on how much SNL has changed since his early years on the writing staff. While political sketches now routinely dominate the show’s cold opens, he said that wasn’t always the case.

“Our cold openings … were only political about a third of the time, at most,” Downey recalled.

According to him, that changed after the show’s political material started generating increased attention during the 1980s. Eventually, creator Lorne Michaels came to view the sketches as something of a public service.

“It was almost like we were a daily newspaper, and we had an obligation to the public to put something political up front,” Downey said.

Throughout Playing POTUS, comedians and writers revisit some of the most memorable presidential impressions in TV history, including Chase’s famously clumsy take on Gerald Ford. The film even raises the question of whether some portrayals influenced real-world politics.

But its larger argument is simpler: The ability to openly mock the people in power is worth protecting.

“As long as we’re still allowed to do that, this democracy is going to survive,” Ferrell says in the documentary.