Sacha Baron Cohen Hits Back at Trump: “I’m a Professional Phony Like Him”

If you come for Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, expect to face Borat’s wrath. Monday night on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Sacha Baron Cohen took aim at President Donald Trump, who previously called the comedian a “phony” and a “creep” when asked about the Amazon sequel. “I’m sure when he was hanging out with his good friend Jeffrey Epstein, they probably spent a lot of their time talking about how creepy I am,” Cohen told Colbert. “And yes, I am a professional phony like him.”

When asked about Borat Subsequent Moviefilm on Friday night, Trump told reporters that Cohen “once tried to scam [him]” during an interview with pre-Borat character Ali G. “I was the only one who said no way. That’s a phony guy,” the president said of the 2003 incident. “And I don’t find him funny. I don’t know anything about him other than he tried to scam me. He came in as a BBC — British broadcasting anchor … To me, he was a creep.”

Of course, Cohen remembers a very different sequence of events. “I remember Donald Trump looking at me and I’m wearing sort of a sweat suit” [as Ali G], he told Colbert. “His face dropped. He was immediately furious that he was going to have to speak to somebody from a lower class borough rather than this rather astute, ‘Etonian’ producer.”

“He didn’t see through the interview,” continued the comedian. “He answered all the questions completely normally … He was in it for a long time.”

Cohen went on to discuss Rudy Giuliani’s now-infamous appearance in Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, in which Trump’s personal attorney is seen flirting with Maria Bakalova’s 15-year-old character, Tutar, during an interview. Afterwards, Giuliani invites Tutar into the bedroom of his hotel room, lays back on the bed, and begins reaching into his pants. Suddenly, Borat bursts into the room, yelling, “She’s 15! She’s too old for you!”

Giuliani has denied any suggestion of impropriety (he claims that he was “tucking his shirt in” when he leaned back on the bed), but that didn’t stop Colbert from asking about it on Monday night. “Do you have anything to say to Rudy Giuliani about going into a bedroom with a supposedly teenage girl to drink whiskey and zip your pants up and down?” asked The Late Show host.

“Well, he said that he did nothing inappropriate,” replied Cohen. “You know, my feeling is if he sees that as appropriate, then heaven knows what he’s intended to do with other women in hotel rooms with a glass of whiskey in his hand.”

“Rudy thought he was alone with her,” he continued, explaining that Giuliani brought a security guard with him to conduct “an entire sweep” of the hotel room before the purported interview. “The security guard, ex-cop, sits outside the room, ensuring that no one could come in and out, which is actually even more scary, when you think about it, for her.”

Watch Sacha Baron Cohen discuss his Borat Subsequent Moviefilm shenanigans above.

Where to stream Borat Subsequent Moviefilm