How Donald Trump ‘Bullied’ His Way Into Home Alone 2

In a recent interview with the San Francisco Chronicle, Hollywood director Chris Columbus expressed that he was not particularly thrilled with keeping US President Donald Trump’s cameo in the film Home Alone 2: Lost in New York.

Columbus wished he could remove the scene from the movie. Taking a dig at the Trump administration’s crackdown on green card holders, he cautiously added that he’d “probably be sent out of the country.”

“I’ll be considered sort of not fit to live in the United States,” he remarked.

In the film, Trump plays himself—a real estate magnate—when the protagonist, played by Macaulay Culkin, asks him for directions to the lobby at The Plaza Hotel in New York.

Columbus said Trump’s appearance in the film has since become “an albatross” for him and added, “I wish it was gone.”

Elaborating on the events that led to Trump’s inclusion in the film, Columbus revealed in a 2020 interview that the businessman refused to let them shoot inside The Plaza—which he owned at the time—unless he was in it.

Columbus recalled that during the film’s first screening, audiences actually cheered during Trump’s appearance. As a result, the filmmakers decided to keep the scene.

Addressing the cameo in a 2023 post on Truth Social, Trump said: “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.”

Refuting claims that he forced his way into the film, Trump added:

“Now, however, 30 years later, Columbus (what was his real name?) put out a statement that I bullied myself into the movie. Nothing could be further from the truth. That cameo helped make the movie a success.”

In his most recent interview, Columbus reiterated: “Years later, it’s become this curse. It’s become this thing that I wish wasn’t there. What’s going through this guy’s mind? He said I was lying. I’m not lying. He said I begged him to be in the movie, but there’s no world in which I’d ever beg a non-actor to be in a film. But we were desperate to get the Plaza Hotel.”