Photo credits: MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images, Steve Granitz/WireImage/Getty Images
Were we currently living through any other presidential administration/national election cycle/etc., we might accuse Sacha Baron Cohen of dragging the whole American political process into absurdity with the antic surrounding his new film, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm. After all, the Amazon movie, released this weekend, takes direct aim at the current political establishment, most notoriously by roping Donald Trump’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, into an embarrassingly compromised position with actress Maria Bakalova, who plays Borat’s daughter in the film. Unused footage for the film also sees Bakalova making her way into the White House, and apparently meeting with Donald Trump Jr. at a CPAC event.
Of course, we don’t live in less absurd times, and so the narrative around Subsequent Moviefilm hasn’t actually made the American political landscape any more surreal; just louder. Which brings us to today, when Donald Trump took time out of his busy day of looking like a dyspeptic toad with McDonald’s diarrhea to address Cohen’s film when asked about it by reporters. Although he didn’t comment on the Giuliani scene in particular, Trump did discuss the one time he was interviewed by Baron Cohen’s character Ali G back in the day, dubbing the British personality “not funny” and a “creep.”
All of which was just fine by Baron Cohen, who responded to this pan by The Leader Of The Free World with a cheerful thanks to Trump for “the free publicity for Borat.” He also floated a job offer that Trump will hopefully soon need, noting that, “I’m always looking for people to play racist buffoons.”
