A cryptic video posted on Twitter by Sacha Baron Cohen suggests that the actor and comedian behind Borat and Brüno may be about to release a film taking aim at Trump University.

A tweet posted on Baron Cohen’s account on Wednesday read “A message from your President @realDonaldTrump on Independence Day” accompanied by a short video containing archive footage of Trump at his desk calling Baron Cohen a “third-rate character” and saying: “I only wish he had been punched in the face so many times right now he would be in the hospital.” The clip ends with Trump saying: “Go to school, learn about being funny”; and the words: “Sacha Graduates Soon”, before closing with a logo for Trump University.

Baron Cohen has tangled with Trump before, having interviewed him in 2003 for Da Ali G Show and attempting to pitch him an “ice cream glove”. In 2012 Trump claimed he was the “only person who immediately walked out of my ‘Ali G’ interview”, a suggestion that Baron Cohen refuted on the Late Late Show, saying: “Actually he was there for about seven minutes … quite a long time [for an Ali G interview]”.

The now-defunct Trump University was launched in 2005, offering courses in real-estate management and wealth creation. Its training programmes ran until 2010, and became the subject of a New York state inquiry over illegal business practices, leading to a lawsuit in 2013. Two class action lawsuits were also filed against Trump in connection with the training programme, which was never licensed as a university; Trump settled all three cases for $25m after being elected as president. During his presidential campaign he claimed that Gonzalo Curiel, one of the judges hearing the case, was biased because of his “Mexican heritage”.