Access CSRF token in external javascript file, using jquery.cookie.js

csrf.js

// base.html
<script type="text/javascript">
$(document).ready(function(){
    var csrf = "{% csrf_token %}";
    $.cookie("csrfmiddlewaretoken", csrf);
});
</script>

// script.js
var csrf_func = function(){
  // need to stick the element string back into the DOM
  // then extract it out enabling the `.value` to work.
  var csrf = $.cookie("csrfmiddlewaretoken");
  var wrapper = document.createElement("div");
  wrapper.innerHTML = csrf;
  var csrf_element = wrapper.firstChild;
  return csrf_element.value;
}

console.log("csrfmiddlewaretoken: ", csrf_func());

requires: <script type="text/javascript" src="{% static 'js/jquery.cookie.js' %}"></script>
which you can download from: https://github.com/carhartl/jquery-cookie

if anyone knows how to get out the value="<this>" from the string in line #13 other than the way I did it please say.