Our Long National Nightmare Is Over

Sorry, definitely not this this one. But take victories where you can find them: Alec Baldwin, who launched a whole second act in his career playing Donald Trump on Saturday Night Live, is SO over that.

In an interview with USA Today published yesterday, Baldwin said he “can’t imagine” he’ll play the president again. “I’m so done with that,” Baldwin said, when asked if he’d be back next season (emphasis mine throughout):

I can’t imagine I would do it again. I just can’t. They should find somebody who wants to do it. They’re all my dear friends and I love going there, but the other thing is that I’m going to go to work this fall in a way I haven’t done in a while. My wife and I had a son a year ago, and since he was born, I’ve worked minimally because I wanted to be there for my wife and kids. But the party’s over this fall and I’ll be traveling. “SNL” just crushes my weekends, and now weekends are going to become much more precious to me because that’s time with my kids.

Fair enough! And who would he like to see replace him? Perhaps one of his haters!

I don’t know. Darrell Hammond did it and is a far better impressionist than I’ll ever be. When Anthony Atamanuik (started impersonating Trump on Comedy Central’s “The President Show”), all these people were attacking me, saying, “Oh, your impression sucks and you suck. Please go away.” It also was something I thought to myself: “I really don’t have a lot invested in my Trump impersonation, so please find someone and convince Lorne (Michaels) to replace me.” I’m completely down with that. Winning the Emmy for that show aside, it was not some career goal of mine.

So if (Atamanuik) wants the job, it’s his. He can have it. I’ve done that. I mean, I had a lot of fun with (the cast), and when Chris Kelly and Sarah Schneider wrote (Trump sketches in 2016 and 2017), that was new, it was fresh and the ratings were good. But I feel like I’m done with that now. I’m so done with that.

Incredible: He let the haters win and feels fine about it. (For what it’s worth, Atamanuik does do a helluva Trump impression.) And Baldwin is watching the ratings just like, oh, I don’t know, someone else loves to do.

Will he write another #Resistance book about life after (playing) Trump? Place your bets now!