Sure, “Saturday Night Live” has offered ample criticism of President Trump and his young administration. But in its latest episode, the program expressed confidence that he’ll be in office until at least 2018, long enough to see America decimated by an alien invasion force from the planet Zorblatt 9.

After a palpable absence last week, Alec Baldwin returned to play Mr. Trump in the “S.N.L.” cold open, which imagined him in a future year, visiting a military base and trying to dispense words of inspiration while the United States battles with an extraterrestrial adversary. It was an opportunity for a rousing “Independence Day”-type speech. So how did he start?

Mr. Baldwin — who, outside of “S.N.L.,” has recently been hinting that he does not plan to play Mr. Trump in perpetuity — began by asking, “Who here loves Trump?”