How Donald Trump ‘Bullied’ His Way Into ‘Home Alone 2’
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If you spent your Christmas holidays binge-watching the Home Alone franchise on Disney+, you were probably stunned to see the familiar off-white dome of former President Donald Trump wandering through New York City’s Plaza Hotel lobby at the beginning of Home Alone 2. (It’s the scene where Kevin asks him for directions, and Trump does a double-take before giving them to him.)
In a new interview with Business Insider, Home Alone 2 director Chris Columbus has finally explained that baffling cameo. Basically, he says, Trump, who then owned the Plaza Hotel, refused to let the crew film there unless they gave him a small role in the film.
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According to Columbus, when the crew approached the Plaza Hotel for permission to shoot its iconic lobby, Trump had an unusual stipulation. In addition to demanding a standard fee, he also reportedly said, “The only way you can use the Plaza is if I’m in the movie.”
“So we agreed to put him in the movie, and when we screened it for the first time the oddest thing happened: People cheered when Trump showed up on-screen,” Columbus told BI. “So I said to my editor, ‘Leave him in the movie. It’s a moment for the audience.’ But he did bully his way into the movie.”
Trump shot back at Columbus’ comments, writing on Truth Social on Wednesday that the director “and others, were begging me to make a cameo appearance in Home Alone 2.”
“I was very busy, and didn’t want to do it,” Trump wrote. “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, and still is, especially around Christmas time. People call me whenever it is aired.”
He added, “That cameo helped make the movie a success, but if they felt bullied, or didn’t want me, why did they put me in, and keep me there, for over 30 years? Because I was, and still am, great for the movie, that’s why!”
Though the cameo is unusual in retrospect, back in the early 1990s viewers would likely not have batted an eye to see Trump on the silver screen. Then a New York City tabloid staple, Trump made cameos as himself in various other films and TV shows throughout the 90s and early aughts, including The Nanny, Sex and the City, and the 1994 remake of The Little Rascals (though technically Trump in the latter film is credited not as himself, but as the father of the movie’s uber-wealthy young antagonist).
In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter from 2017, Matt Damon previously confirmed that Trump would not permit filmmakers shooting at his properties unless he was written into the screenplay, though such cameos were often cut from the finished product.
Of course, Trump would later leverage his screen experience into a starring role on the Mark Burnett-produced reality TV series The Apprentice, thereby establishing him as even more of a household name and creating a pathway for him to pursue the presidency in 2016. But back then, it seems his aspirations were no more grandiose than wanting a five-second walk-on in a kids’ movie where a fledgling blonde sociopath hits Joe Pesci in the face with a brick.
Thursday, Dec. 28, 3:35 a.m. This post has been updated with Donald Trump’s statement.
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