Director Chris Columbus remains dissatisfied with U.S. President Donald Trump’s cameo in the 1992 film “Home Alone 2: Lost in New York.”
Columbus, who directed the sequel to the beloved 1990 holiday film “Home Alone,” expressed in an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle published on Tuesday that Trump’s role in the movie has become “an albatross for me” and he wishes it could be removed.
In the film, Trump appears as himself when he encounters Kevin McAllister (played by Macaulay Culkin), who has become separated from his family and finds himself in New York City. Inside the Plaza Hotel, Kevin asks the then-businessman and real estate mogul for directions to the hotel lobby, to which Trump provides assistance.
Columbus remarked that the scene is one he “can’t cut,” humorously adding that doing so might lead to him being “sent out of the country.” He quipped, “I’d be considered somewhat unfit to live in the United States.”
Previously, Columbus recounted how Trump came to be included in the film during a 2020 interview with Business Insider. He revealed that Trump agreed to allow filming at the Plaza, which he owned at the time, only on the condition that he would appear in the movie.
“We consented to include him, and during the first screening, an unexpected reaction occurred: the audience cheered when Trump appeared on screen,” Columbus recalled. “I told my editor, ‘Leave him in the movie. It’s a moment for the audience.’ However, he did assert himself into the film.”
In 2023, Trump commented on his cameo via Truth Social, stating, “I was very busy and didn’t want to do it. They were very nice, but above all, persistent. I agreed, and the rest is history! That little cameo took off like a rocket, and the movie was a big success.”
He later remarked, “Now, however, 30 years later, Columbus (what was his real name?) issued a statement claiming I bullied my way into the movie. Nothing could be further from the truth. That cameo he…”
Columbus expressed his disagreement with that assertion in this week’s Chronicle, commenting on Trump’s cameo in “Home Alone 2,” stating, “Years later, it has turned into a burden. It has become something I wish had never happened. What is this individual thinking? He claims I was dishonest. I am not being dishonest. He alleges that I pleaded with him to appear in the film, but I would never beg a non-actor to participate in a movie. However, we were eager to secure the Plaza Hotel.”
“Home Alone 2: Lost in New York” features actors such as Culkin, Catherine O’Hara, John Heard, Tim Curry, Joe Pesci, and Daniel Stern, and it achieved a remarkable box office gross of $359 million, a significant accomplishment for the early 1990s.