Jeffrey Epstein ‘Ghost’ Shows Donald Trump the ‘Future’ on ‘SNL’
Saturday Night Live mocked President Donald Trump and several members of his administration during its Season 51 finale, with Will Ferrell appearing as the ghost of disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein in the show’s cold open.
In the sketch, a chain-clad Epstein wearing a gray prison uniform wakes Trump—played by cast member James Austin Johnson—from a nap in the Oval Office and tells him he can reveal visions of the future. Trump replies: “Wow, I’m surprised there is one.”
Kristi and Bryon Noem Referenced
The first invented flash-forward shows former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem selling Shark Wand vacuum cleaners on a teleshopping channel in six months’ time.
Noem, played by SNL cast member Ashley Padilla, then jokes the vacuum cleaner is “the best way to clean up that mess your dog made, besides a gun.”
“And it can even handle balloon scraps left over from when your husband’s giant balloon breasts pop,” she adds, referring to images that emerged shortly after Noem was fired as the head of homeland security in March, allegedly showing her husband, Bryon Noem, wearing a pair of fake breasts under a top and hot pants during online exchanges.
Bryon Noem denied his alleged activities put his wife at risk of blackmail in a statement to the Daily Mail, which originally published the images. A representative for Kristi Noem separately told The New York Post she was “devastated” by the allegations
The joke about “cleaning up that mess your dog made, besides a gun” references backlash surrounding Kristi Noem’s 2024 memoir, in which she described shooting a dog named Cricket that she said was aggressive and unsuitable as a hunting dog.
Hegseth, Patel and Iran Jokes
The SNL future predictions then cut to a clip showing Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, played by Colin Jost.
Jost’s Hegseth pours alcohol into what is described as a “giant beer bong,” while FBI Director Kash Patel—portrayed by comedian Aziz Ansari—drinks from a tube supposedly connected to the vat of liquid.
The fictionalized Trump and Epstein then reappear, with the fake Trump remarking: “I guess that means we won the war in Iran.”
“Yep, we came in second,” Ferrell’s Epstein responds.
“No matter how many wars you start, or how bad you tank the economy as a distraction, people will always associate you with me. My dear, close friend, that’s a beautiful thing,” the fake Epstein adds. The pair then launch into a rendition of “Just The Two of Us,” the 1980 hit by Bill Withers and Grover Washington, Jr.
Trump, who was once socially acquainted with Epstein, has said the two fell out years before the financier’s first conviction for a sex-related offense and has denied any wrongdoing related to him.
Epstein died in a New York jail in August 2019. A Department of Justice and FBI memo published last year reiterated he had died by suicide at the now-closed Metropolitan Correctional Center.
Update 5/17/2026 5:40 a.m. ET: This article has been updated with additional information.
