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Why Melissa McCarthy's gender-bending SNL skit got under Trump's skin

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Comedians, start your engines and may the best drag performer win.

It turns out Sean Spicer isn't the only one to be upset with Melissa McCarthy's hilarious Saturday Night Live performance.

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Melissa McCarthy nails Sean Spicer

Melissa McCarthy's impression of press secretary Sean Spicer looks set to become a regular feature on Saturday Night Live.

The President himself wasn't the biggest fan of his number one press secretary and gum-chewer being mocked on national television.

But Donald Trump's biggest gripe wasn't the way McCarthy poked fun at Spicer's ill-fitting suit jackets or his penchant for yelling at reporters fact-checking his outright lies.  

No, what really got the Commander-in-Chief's goat was the fact Spicer was portrayed by a woman, according to those close to him.

The sketch – which saw McCarthy soak a reporter with a water pistol and ram another with her lectern – has struck a nerve inside a White House rattled by a tumultuous first few weeks in office.

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Trump has in the past been openly critical of SNL but has remained unusually silent about last week's episode.

"Trump doesn't like his people to look weak," a top Trump donor told Politico

By getting McCarthy to slap on a realistic wig and fragile, macho personality, it appears SNL has done something the press have struggled to do: get under the new President's skin. 

The comedian's performance has received enormous praise worldwide, with fans pointing out she's created a character as memorable - if not better than - Alec Baldwin's Trump impersonation.

And it looks like SNL's gender-bending performances aren't going away any time soon, with comedian Rosie O'Donnell saying she'd love to play Trump's chief strategist Steve Bannon if asked to step into the role. 

"Alec has trump, Melissa has Spice[r]," she wrote on Twitter. 

"I would need a few days to prepare, so if called, I will be ready."