SNL: John Mulaney Jokes That Senators Should Stab Trump Like Julius Caesar

Former Saturday Night Live writer John Mulaney returned to the show to host tonight, and made a joke that compared President Donald Trump to Julius Caesar, “a powerful maniac” who was assassinated by a group of Roman senators, and suggested that it would be an “interesting thing” to consider today.

Caesar is perhaps the most well-known ancient Roman leader, famous for both his military prowess and political maneuvering. Under Caesar’s leadership, Rome’s conquering armies spread across the European continent, all the way to Britain. He instituted reforms like the Julian calendar, expanded citizenship rights, and benefits for military veterans — but he also was an authoritarian ruler who worked to centralize government power and eventually installed himself as dictator perpetuo (Latin for “dictator for life”).

Roman senators who opposed Caesar’s reforms conspired to assassinate him and on March 15, 44 B.C., when he was attending a session of the Senate, dozens of them attacked him and stabbed him to death.

Here’s the text of Mulaney’s joke:

It is a Leap Year, as I said. Leap Year began in 45 B.C. under Julius Caesar. This is true, he started the Leap Year in order to correct the calendar and we still do it to this day.

Another thing that happened under Julius Caesar, he was such a powerful maniac that all the senators grabbed knives and they stabbed him to death. That would be an interesting thing if we brought that back now.

Joking about Senators assassinating Trump may get laughs from the Manhattan SNL audience, but Mulaney may want to study his Roman history a little closer, because Caesar’s death failed to restore the constitutional republic the Roman Senators claimed was the just cause behind their murderous plot.

Caesar’s death was followed by a chaotic and violent period, with a series of civil wars that culminated in Caesar’s adopted heir, Octavian — later known as Augustus — declaring victory over his opponents and seizing the reins of power. Augustus initially gave lip service to republican ideas like free elections and representative government, but as the years passed, sought to concentrate power under his control and was able to convince the Roman Senate to grant him significant powers for life, including supreme military command and the key executive political powers.

Watch the video above, via NBC.