Controversy-loving comedian Sacha Baron Cohen is turning his rude, take-no-prisoners style of humor on President Trump for a future project.
That was the message today in a short video the British satirist, provocateur and comic posted to his Twitter account with the title, “A Message from Donald Trump” for the Fourth of July.
In the video, the real Donald Trump is seen talking about Cohen, who once interviewed him as a gotcha-gag in 2003 on a TV series he did as the character Ali G.
A message from your President @realDonaldTrump on Independence Day pic.twitter.com/O2PwZqO0cs
— Sacha Baron Cohen (@SachaBaronCohen) July 4, 2018
It is unclear when Trump made the comments or where he was at the time but his dislike for Cohen is clear, who he suggests deserves some of his trademark brand of physical violence as a lesson.
“The third-grade character named Sacha Baron Cohen,”Trump is seen saying, “I only wish that he would’ve been punched in the face so many times. Right now, he’d be in a hospital.”
Cohen overlays images of himself as Trump continues, saying, “It was disgraceful. He ought to be fired immediately.”
Trump criticizes the comedian for his form of humor: “Sacha Baron Cohen, go to school! Learn about being funny.”
“Sacha Baron Cohen,” Trump repeats, “go to school! Learn about being funny. You don’t know shit.”
On the screen, it says “Sacha graduates soon.”
Finally the trailer teases, “he’s back as you’ve never seen him before.”
At the end, a logo for the bankrupt Trump University appears on the screen.
Trump may be making reference to his one face-to-face run-in with Cohen in 2003>
In the episode, Ali G is on Wall Street looking to talk to big shots, and at about the two-minute mark of the video, he is with Trump doing an interview.
Trump, in suit and tie, apparently in his own office, seems to be taking it as a serious interview at first, but then Cohen’s Ali G goes into a pitch for his new product, special gloves to wear with cold ice cream.
Trump, then-star of The Apprentice, where people often pitch new ideas and products to win the game, finally catches on to the gag and then abruptly stands, says goodbye and ends the interview.
Trump has since claimed he always knew it was a fake and that is why he left.
I never fall for scams. I am the only person who immediately walked out of my ‘Ali G’ interview
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 30, 2012
Cohen, for his part, told James Cordon on the Late, Late Show in 2016 that he was “the first person to (Trump) is “a dick.”
Cohen told Cordon that while Trump now says he knew it was a fake and that he walked out of the interview, Trump was actually on camera with him for seven minutes before he left.
It is unclear if Cohen really has a Trump project in the works or if this too was just a gag.
Cohen, it was announced in April, is staring in a limited series on Netflix called The Spy about an undercover agent in the Middle East back in the 1960s who infiltrates the Syrian government.
Cohen is known for his unique brand of humor that often mixes reality and fiction with over the top pranks in movies like Borat: Culture Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (2006), Bruno (2009). and The Dictator (2012).
He was nominated for an Academy Award in 2007 for the adapted screenplay of Borat.
In real life, Cohen was educated at England’s prestigious Cambridge University and attended the Habonim Dror summer camp, which describes itself as “a Socialist Zionist Culturally Jewish youth movement.”
Cohen is a second generation Brit whose parents, who are Jewish, immigrated from Eastern Europe.
Cohen’s brand of hit-and-run humor may be just the way to portray Trump, who takes himself way too seriously, seemingly begging to be the subject of a clever satire.
Whether Cohen, who ranges from smart to disgusting with his humor, can deliver that level of comedy at Trump’s expense would be interesting to see.
