Note: Darrell Hammond’s Donald Trump meets Donald Trump’s Donald Trump on SNL in 2004 (Mary Ellen Matthews/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank/Getty Images); Hammond, left, as Ted Koppel, with Koppel at an event honoring the newsman at the Museum of Broadcasting (Courtesy of Darrell Hammond); President Bill Clinton, left, with Hammond’s Clinton in 1997 (Wilfredo Lee/AP); and Hammond as Al Gore, left, with Will Ferrell as George W. Bush in an SNL sketch in 2000 (Kevork Djansezian/AP).

By then, he’d already stolen countless scenes playing politicians (Clinton, Gore, Dick Cheney), newscasters (Chris Matthews, Ted Koppel, Dan Rather) and a motley assortment of other characters, everyone from Don Knotts to Geraldo Rivera. His Phil Donahue is particularly delicious.

“Maybe there was a better one in Babylonian times,” Higgins says, “but Darrell is one of the most accurate impressionists I have ever seen in the history of show business.”

And his Trump was no exception.

Downey calls it “the gold standard.” Later, as he watched Baldwin’s Trump explode, turning the impression into a crowd-pleasing cartoon, Downey could understand why Michaels made the change. But he also got why it would baffle a perfectionist like Hammond.

“It is as if, like, he has worked his lifetime on a device that repairs leaks in his hot-air balloon and then, oh my God, we have a leak in our hot-air balloon, and Darrell is standing there like, ‘Guys?’ ” Downey says. “ ‘Oh, no, let’s bring in Alec Baldwin.’ ”

It’s no surprise that few in the SNL family understood how much losing Trump hurt. Even when Hammond was at 30 Rock, he kept to himself, rarely remaining for the closing-credits hug or heading to after-parties. He was more likely to mingle with a security guard than David Spade. Former cast member Molly Shannon remembers how warmly Hammond treated her father, Jim, when he visited the set.

“He’s one of the kindest people I know,” she says. “He’s very different than a lot of performers who need attention. He’s quiet and thoughtful and kind and really cares about people.”

As for Michaels, he remains more than a boss to Hammond. He protected him, saved him, kept him in the family. Hammond likens him to the late Yankees manager Casey Stengel, the empathetic sage who knew how to urge the best out of his players. Michaels, for his part, describes Hammond, simply, as “a brilliant comedian.”

He had planned to talk with Hammond after the Trump decision, but by then he had left town. Even then, Michaels isn’t sure an explanation would have helped.

“The original, the normal interpretation when someone doesn’t get the part they wanted is obviously disappointment, and then a feeling that I no longer believe in them,” Michaels says. “And that is not the case with Darrell. I both love and respect Darrell and have supported him for, you know, we are going on into our third decade. But my point with it is I had to make a tough choice.”