Saturday Night Live took aim at Donald Trump in a blistering cold open that skewered the president over the release of heavily redacted Jeffrey Epstein files - but the sketch quickly sparked backlash from MAGA supporters who accused the show of bias. The festive episode opened with comedian James Austin Johnson reprising his Trump impression, mocking the White House's claim of transparency after hundreds of pages released by the Justice Department on Friday were littered with blacked-out sections.

Johnson's Trump proudly boasted: "We released all the files, and I come out looking, frankly, very good." Standing beside an oversized document bearing redactions around the words Trump Didn't Do Nothing Bad, he added: "We had to redact a few sensitive things, but you'll get the gist here." The parody continued: "See, it's all there. Can you believe it?" Johnson then leaned into Trump's long-standing and contradictory comments about Jeffrey Epstein, telling the audience: "With regard to files, we're being very transparent... Because Jeffrey Epstein was a terrible man, and I didn't know him, and I liked him a lot."

The sketch followed the Justice Department's evidence dump, which showed Trump appearing only a handful of times in the documents, with critics accusing his administration of scrubbing references to him through extensive redactions.

SNL didn't stop there. The cold open also mocked Trump's reported plans to rename major institutions after himself, including a jab at the Kennedy Centre.

Johnson's Trump joked: "We are renaming the Kennedy Centre for the Performing Arts, which will now be called the Trump-Kennedy Centre for the Performing Arts. No Homo."

He then claimed the reason so many buildings were being renamed was simple: "We had to take it off so many files."

Pointing to images of landmarks bearing his name, he continued: "We had to put them somewhere... I'm actually going to be renaming a number of our other monuments as well... Trump-Washington Monument... Trump Lincoln Memorial."

The sketch also poked fun at Trump's tendency to drift between talking points, including his repeated references to cognitive testing.

Johnson said: "I'm doing my own version of Nativity now, where kings from the Middle East bring gifts for me, like gold and an aeroplane and a casino deal in Dubai."

He added: "But unlike nativity, they're not showing up on camel. And I know camel, I know it very well. I know it from my mandatory daily cognitive test. I always get camel right. It's a bumpy horse, that's how I know a camel, bumpy horse."

While the segment drew laughs from some viewers, it divided opinion sharply online. Conservative critics accused SNL of having declined standards and engaging in selective targeting.

One self-described MAGA supporter wrote on X that the impression was "as weak & pitiful as SNL has ever been".

They added: "The ideas, the writing & delivery of those ideas & writing is worse than it's ever been. Turn out the lights, lock the doors & turn that block of time into showing more entertaining TV. Paint drying & grass growing."

Others complained that the sketch failed to reference former president Bill Clinton's appearance in the Epstein files.

One viewer wrote sarcastically: "I'm starting to think this show is biased" and "I miss SNL being humorous..."

Another added: "They should do a skit on why Biden didn't release the files if so damaging to Trump.... Or even better, one that portrays the Clintons."