Borat 2: Trump calls Sacha Baron Cohen a ‘creep’ after film shows awkward Rudy Giuliani incident

Baron Cohen posed as his character Ali G for an interview with Trump in 2003

Donald Trump has called Sacha Baron Cohen a “creep” and a “phoney guy” after being asked about an incident involving Rudy Giuliani in the comedian’s new Borat film.

Giuliani, Trump’s personal lawyer and a former New York mayor, is shown in the film during a faked “interview” with a young woman – Borat’s daughter Tutar, played by actor Maria Bakalova – as she invites him up to her hotel room for a “drink”.

In the room, which is rigged with hidden cameras, Giuliani is seen reclining on a bed as he fiddles with his shirt and reaches into his trousers, in the presence of Bakalova.  

They are interrupted by Borat, who bursts into the room shouting: “She’s 15. She’s too old for you.”

Giuliani reported the incident involving the intrusion of an unusually dressed man to police when it took place in July.  

“This guy comes running in, wearing a crazy, what I would say was a pink transgender outfit,” Giuliani told the New York Post at the time. “It was a pink bikini, with lace, underneath a translucent mesh top, it looked absurd. He had the beard, bare legs, and wasn’t what I would call distractingly attractive.

“This person comes in yelling and screaming, and I thought this must be a scam or a shakedown, so I reported it to the police. He then ran away,” Giuliani said. 

The police found no crime had been committed.

Giuliani continued: “I only later realised it must have been Sacha Baron Cohen. I thought about all the people he previously fooled and I felt good about myself because he didn’t get me.”

Giuliani said this week that the scene was “a complete fabrication”.

“I was tucking in my shirt after taking off the recording equipment. At no time before, during, or after the interview was I ever inappropriate,” he tweeted.

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“If Sacha Baron Cohen implies otherwise he is a stone-cold liar.”

Borat Subsequent Moviefilm was released on Friday 23 October on Amazon Prime Video.  

Asked about the clip, Trump told reporters on Air Force One: “I don’t know what happened.

“But years ago, you know, [Baron Cohen] tried to scam me. And I was the only one who said no way,” he said. “That’s a phoney guy. And I don’t find him funny.”

Trump said the incident happened about 15 years ago, meaning he was likely referring to Baron Cohen’s infamous 2003 interview with him while playing Ali G.

Posing as the wannabe gangster, Baron Cohen pitched his latest business venture to Trump: special gloves for eating ice cream.

“To me he was a creep,” Trump said, according to a tweet from Voice of America news reporter Steve Herman.

Baron Cohen released a follow-up message to Giuliani as Borat, in which his character expressed sympathy for the hotel room incident.  

“I here to defend America’s Mayor, Rudolph Giuliani,” he said. “What was an innocent sexy-time encounter between a consenting man and my 15-year-old daughter has been turned into something disgusting by fake news media.”

He continued: “I warn you – anyone else try this and Rudolph will not hesitate to reach into his legal briefs and whip out his su-penis.”