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Sacha Baron Cohen revived his comedy character Borat to mock Kanye West and Donald Trump at the Kennedy Center Honors.
The actor was among the famous faces at the glitzy gala in Washington, D.C. on Sunday night (04.12.22) and he took to the stage in character as part of the tribute to honourees U2 – as Borat, he didn't hold back when he spotted US President Joe Biden in the audience with First Lady Jill Biden and pretended to mistake him for his predecessor Trump.
He joked: “I am told the president of U.S. today is here. Where are you Mr. Trump? You don't look so good.
“Where has your blown a** big belly gone? And your pretty orange skin without fail. I see you have a new wife. Whoa whoa whooo wha! She is very erotic.”
Cohen as Borat went on to reference his character's home nation of Kazakhstan and mock Trump's theories about the 2020 presidential election as he needled rapper Kanye West over his recent anti-Semitism scandal.
He went on: “I must say I'm very upset about the antisemitism in the U.S. today. It's not fair. Kazakhstan is the number one Jew crushing nation. Stop stealing our hobby. Stop the steal. Stop the steal. Your Kayne. He tried to move to Kazakhstan and even tried to change his name to Kazakhstan-ye West. But we said no. He's too anti-semitic even for us.”
Kanye was recently booted from Twitter and Instagram over a series of anti-Semitic posts.
Cohen went on to pay tribute to U2 – referring to the band as “Me Too” – and giving a nod to their 2014 album ‘Songs of Innocence' which was automatically installed in iTunes accounts without users' consent.
Cohen read a message in Kazakh and then said: “It translates to mean ‘Please remove your wretched album from my new iPhone 6.”
Actor George Clooney and singer Gladys Knight were also honoured at the ceremony alongside U2, Tania Leon and Amy Grant.
