Host Don Cheadle wearing a fantastic suit during the Saturday Night Live monologue

Don Cheadle Brought Powerful Political Fashion Choices to SNL

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Saturday Night Live is no stranger to politics (to state the extremely obvious). This is a show that can have Donald Trump rage-tweeting within hours. But in this weekend’s episode hosted by Don Cheadle, the strongest political moments came outside of the sketches themselves, thanks to Cheadle’s own wardrobe choices.

When introducing musical guest Gary Clark, Jr., Cheadle wore a shirt that read “PROTECT TRANS KIDS.”

That message—of wanting to protect children—is one that that shouldn’t have to be seen as “political” but the reality is that trans children and organizations that offer them support are under attack and have been for far too long. Cheadle’s silent message of support was a powerful one.

In addition to that incredible shirt, Cheadle was also wearing a hat with the logo of Sleeping Giants, an activist organization that fights to get advertisers to drop bigoted programs or entire outlets like Breitbart.

Then during the show’s sign-off, Cheadle was wearing a Soviet hockey jersey. When he turned around, you could see it was emblazoned with Trump’s (or rather, TЯUMP’s) name and the number 45.

Subtlety is overrated. Don Cheadle is perfection.

(image: Will Heath/NBC)

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Vivian Kane
Vivian Kane (she/her) is the Senior News Editor at The Mary Sue, where she's been writing about politics and entertainment (and all the ways in which the two overlap) since the dark days of late 2016. Born in San Francisco and radicalized in Los Angeles, she now lives in Kansas City, Missouri, where she gets to put her MFA to use covering the local theatre scene. She is the co-owner of The Pitch, Kansas City’s alt news and culture magazine, alongside her husband, Brock Wilbur, with whom she also shares many cats.