National security officials have unintentionally leaked attack plans for Yemen once again — but this time, the information was shared with teen girls on Saturday Night Live.
In the cold open of the NBC sketch comedy show, the Trump administration’s Signal chat scandal is humorously parodied. This controversy involved top national security figures accidentally adding The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief to a Signal group chat, where they discussed plans for an airstrike in Yemen. President Donald Trump later asserted that the content of the messages wasn’t classified. Shortly after the leak came to light, The Atlantic published the texts, which included details about the planned attack.
The SNL sketch opens with three high school girls — portrayed by host Mikey Madison, Ego Nwodim, and Sarah Sherman — texting about their drama with boys. Suddenly, they’re added to a group chat with U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, played by Andrew Dismukes.
“FYI green light on Yemen race,” Hegseth (Dismukes) writes. “Who’s ready to glass some Houthi rebels. Flag emoji, flag emoji, flag emoji, fire emoji, eggplant.”
Confused, the girls ask who is texting them, as Hegseth continues with, “Israel better bend over and spread it. Baller, water squirt emoji. God bless the troops, eggplant.”
Madison replies, “Do we know you, bro? This is Jennabel,” while Nwodim adds, “Hey, I think you have the wrong group chat.”
“LOL LOL. Could you imagine if that actually happened?” Hegseth (Dismukes) says. “Homer disappears into bush GIF. And oh my God, everyone, sending a PDF with updated locations of all our nuclear submarines. Check out that one we got chilling right outside Shanghai. Jordan Peele sweating like crazy GIF.”
Soon after, Bowen Yang’s Vice President J.D. Vance joins the chat.
“Nice job with the strike, fam. Female skier emoji,” Vance (Yang) writes. “My bad, meant to send fire emoji. … Egypt owes us big time for this Yemen shiz. POTUS was saying we should make them give us the pyramids.”
“OK, I’m engaging. The pyramids of Giza? Like, how would we move them here?” a perplexed Madison asks. Vance (Yang) responds, “Same way they built them, either aliens or slaves.”
Madison later texts, “Oh, I gotta go. Matt’s here to pick me up. We’re going to a movie,” and Hegseth (Dismukes) asks, “Who? Gaetz?” Madison jokes, “Actually, yeah.”
Next, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, played by Marcello Hernández, joins the chat. “Wait, who are the other three numbers here? P.S. sending you the real JFK files, not those fake ones we released. Do not share!” he writes.
Nwodim tries to explain, “We’ve been trying to tell you we’re in high school,” while Sherman adds, “I think you accidentally added us to a government chat.”
“In that case, we were totally pranking you guys,” Rubio (Hernández) responds. “But would you mind emailing your names and home addresses to deportations@ice.gov?”
“Hey, could be worse. We could have added the editor of The Atlantic again,” Vance (Yang) comments before Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg, portrayed by Mikey Day, chimes in, “You did!”
Weekend Update wasn’t finished covering the Signal debacle. “Well, this week we found out that the entire national security team has the texting skills of my aunt Janice,” quipped Colin Jost. He went on to poke fun at Mike Waltz’s use of “the fist emoji, the American flag emoji, and the Tesla emoji,” referencing the recent wave of arson attacks on Elon Musk’s cars.
Madison, the star of Anora, made her debut as host on SNL, with musical guest Morgan Wallen (who stormed off the stage during cast goodbyes).
