Rosie O’Donnell Reveals Why ‘SNL’ Rejected Her MAGA Cameo
Lorne Michaels was allegedly not on board with the popular idea.
WireImage
Rosie O’Donnell revealed why the social media excitement about her playing Donald Trump’s former Chief Strategist, Steve Bannon, never materialized.
The comedian, former talk show host, and Trump nemesis, 64, put herself forward for the role in 2017 after Melissa McCarthy made waves with her impression of White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer.
Rosie O’Donnell changed her Twitter profile picture to look like Bannon in 2017.
New York Daily News
O’Donnell told Variety on Thursday why she never appeared on the show.
“I haven’t been asked to do that,” she confirmed. “But I put a picture up of me with Steve Bannon’s hair right when that was going down, and I wrote, ‘SNL?’ Lorne had apparently said, ‘She’s too angry. It’s not funny when you’re angry.’”
Steve Bannon at a pre-trial conference hearing in his fraud case in January 2025.
Steven Hirsch/via REUTERS
O’Donnell didn’t say where she’d heard Michaels’ alleged response.
After Trump fired him in August of 2017, Bannon faced a contempt-of-Congress conviction that landed him in prison for four months in 2024.
Rosie O'Donnell was reportedly involved in the demonstration.
MICHAEL TRAN/AFP via Getty Images
O’Donnell, though she hasn’t appeared on SNL, has continued a string of other TV appearances since she left the U.S. to escape Trump’s second presidency.
She appeared as herself on HBO’s Hacks, played a nun on the Sex and the City sequel series And Just Like That..., and is expected to poke Trump on late-night TV as a celebrity guest host on Jimmy Kimmel Live! next month.
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