Remember That Time Sacha Baron Cohen Tricked Donald Trump Into Coming On ‘Da Ali G Show’?
Trump says he wasn't fooled. The evidence suggests otherwise.
Oh, 2003. Things were so much simpler then. Guy Sebastian was on top of the ARIA Charts, nobody was on Facebook, and Donald Trump was just a stupid businessman instead of the stupid Commander in Chief.
At the same time, Sacha Baron Cohen was hosting Da Ali G Show, honing the cringeworthy comedy that he’d later utilise in Borat, Bruno and this year’s Who Is America? It was in this guise that the prankster crossed paths with the future president, pitching him a business idea during an interview that fell apart almost immediately.
“What is the most popular thing in the world?” Ali asks Trump during the encounter.
“Music,” says Trump after a pause.
“No,” replies Ali. “Ice cream. Everyone ‘as it.”
The host goes on to try and get Trump to invest in his invention: a special glove to stop ice cream from dripping onto your hands. But Trump isn’t buying it.
“It sounds like a good idea, and I hope you make a lot of money,” he tells Ali, before walking out of the interview.
You can watch the meeting between these two great minds in the video below.
Years later, Trump referenced the encounter as proof that he “never falls for scams”, insisting that he was “the only person” to immediately walk out of an interview with Ali G.
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
But Baron Cohen remembers it differently, telling James Corden in 2016 that the full interview went for seven whole minutes before Trump pulled the plug.
“I was the first person to realise he was a dick,” the comedian joked.
New episodes of Baron Cohen’s latest show Who Is America? are available every week on Stan.