Republican frontrunner Donald Trump has hosted the sketch-comedy show Saturday Night Live, defying protesters to make the highly anticipated but controversial primetime television appearance.
Wearing a dark suit, white shirt and red tie, the bombastic Mr Trump stepped on stage to cheers and applause.
“I am a nice guy,” he insisted in a nearly five-minute opening monologue that saw him flanked by two lookalikes.
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“It’s wonderful to be here. This is going to be something special,” he said.
Mr Trump, a billionaire real estate developer who has never held elected office, leads the polls for the Republican nomination for the 2016 race to the White House and will be hoping that his appearance on the show will cement his status as frontrunner.
But the 69-year-old has courted controversy for his statements on immigration, promising if he becomes president he will expel immigrants who are in the United States illegally and build a wall along the US-Mexico border.
He has also alleged Mexico sends rapists and other criminals across the border. His stance saw Latino community leaders hold a rally Friday in Los Angeles calling on NBC Universal to drop Mr Trump from Saturday Night Live.
There were more protests Saturday in New York hours before the show was broadcast, with demonstrators marching to NBC’s studio in Rockefeller Plaza.
Larry David couldn’t miss this opportunity. #SNL https://t.co/CQ3y2BxUtK
— Saturday Night Live (@nbcsnl) November 8, 2015
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