Borat Subsequent Moviefilm star Sacha Baron Cohen responded to President Donald Trump, who reportedly called the actor a “creep” on Air Force One Friday. Baron Cohen thanked Trump for the “free publicity” for the film and said he did not find Trump funny either, even though the “whole world laughs” at the president. The most talked-about scene in the Borat sequel features Trump’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, in a compromising position with Maria Bakalova’s character, Borat’s 15-year-old daughter Tutar.
On Friday, Voice of America White House bureau chief Steve Herman reported Trump was asked if he saw any of Borat 2 and if he was worried about security breaches. “I don’t know what happened. But years ago, you know, he tried to scam me and I was the only one who said no way. That’s a phony guy and I don’t find him funny,” Trump said, repeating his claim that he is the only person to walk out of a Baron Cohen interview immediately. Trump later added, “To me, he’s a creep.”
Videos by PopCulture.com
After hearing about Trump’s comments on Sunday, Baron Cohen had a quick response. “Donald — I appreciate the free publicity for Borat! I admit I don’t find you funny either. But yet the whole world laughs at you,” he wrote. “I’m always looking for people to play racist buffoons, and you’ll need a job after Jan. 20. Let’s talk!”
Baron Cohen has been a frequent Trump critic throughout his career. A scene in the original 2006 Borat film even shows the character going to the bathroom in front of Trump Tower in New York City. In 2003, Baron Cohen interviewed Trump for Da Ali G Show. In the scene, Trump begins to seriously answer Ali G’s questions before figuring out that the show is a prank. Although the segment that aired lasted almost two minutes, Trump has claimed he immediately walked out of the interview. “I never fall for scams. I am the only person who immediately walked out of my ‘Ali G’ interview,” Trump tweeted in October 2012.
In October, Baron Cohen wrote a serious op-ed about the dangers of conspiracy theories for Time. In it, he revealed that he crashed an Arkansas right-wing event, where he was “truly terrified – for the survival of democracy itself.” He called out Trump for his roles in spreading the theories. “Donald Trump — who averages 23 lies a day and is the world’s greatest superspreader of coronavirus conspiracies — has caught the virus himself. He has a dutiful ally in Facebook — the greatest propaganda machine in history,” Baron Cohen wrote. “And this is a time when Americans are especially vulnerable to lies and conspiracies. This trifecta has created a whirlwind of conspiratorial madness.”
