Actor Sacha Baron Cohen released a parody campaign ad for President Donald Trump on Tuesday — in the persona of his infamous character Borat. The video came from a parody “Republic of Kazakhstan” Twitter account and was retweeted by Cohen about half an hour before the 2020 presidential election debate. It featured Borat’s enthusiastic endorsement of “premier Trump.”
The 35-second video was set to a sentimental piano track, with Cohen’s Borat character speaking in an enthusiastic voiceover. To a series of pictures and video clips, he said: “Donald Trump: strongest premier in history! He not racist! Black guys love him so much, they kneel before him! He protector of womens, he hero of war.” The footage included shots of the NFL protests, Trump shaking hands with Kanye West and an old video of Trump talking animatedly with suspected child molester Jeffrey Epstein.
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Congratulation to great friend of the Kazakh people @realDonaldTrump for winning debate today! Impressive and amazing result for a strong premier who always put America and Kazakhstan first! pic.twitter.com/qLljQ8b5UU
— Republic of Kazakhstan 🇰🇿 (@KazakhstanGovt) September 30, 2020
Throughout the video, Borat repeated the line: “Trump never had stroke,” played alongside a clip of Trump drinking from a glass of water with both hands. He later said the same line as a video played showing Trump trailing toilet paper off of his shoe while he walked up the steps of Air Force One. Borat also addressed the coronavirus pandemic, saying: “Because of Trump, 350 million Americans still alive!”
The video then directed viewers to a website called “Kazakhs Against Foreign Meddling” — a simple webpage with Kazakh text over a plain green backdrop, with parody propaganda images of Trump interspersed throughout. It urged “true Americans” to vote for Trump, describing him like a dictator.
The video was not only a timely political parody but an ad for Cohen’s upcoming Borat sequel. According to a report by Deadline, the new film will be released directly onto Amazon Prime Video in late October of 2020. The Borat sequel was reportedly the first major motion picture filmed during the coronavirus pandemic, shot quietly and quickly wherever easing restrictions allowed. It was filmed throughout the U.S. and in some international locations as well.
Borat sent Cohen to a new echelon of fame when it was first released back in 2006. He spent the entire movie deep in the over-the-top persona, with other people on film often unsure whether he was even acting or not. He has since done the same with other cartoonish characters. Most recently, Cohen applied this skill to American politics in the Showtime original series Who Is America, where he played a whole cast of characters for his unsuspecting co-stars.
An exact release date for Cohen’s Borat sequel has not been set, but it is expected on Amazon Prime Video sometime next month. The first debate of the 2020 presidential election is live until 10:30 p.m. ET on most major news networks.
