Twice-impeached U.S. President Donald Trump "bullied" his way into the Home Alone sequel according to the film's director, Chris Columbus.
In a 2020 interview with Business Insider, Columbus recalled how Trump agreed for Home Alone 2: Lost In New York to be filmed in The Plaza Hotel, which he owned, as the location couldn't be rebuilt into a soundstage. But Trump just had one stipulation: that he appear in the Christmas comedy film.
“Trump said OK. We paid the fee, but he also said, ‘The only way you can use the Plaza is if I’m in the movie,'” Columbus told BI. “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. 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.”
The six-second cameo shows Trump giving Home Alone protagonist Kevin McCallister (Macaulay Culkin) directions to the lobby. In 2014, the scene was edited out by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, who deemed it unnecessary to the plot and needed room for commercials.
Also attesting to Columbus' comment on Trump was Matt Damon, who spoke with The Hollywood Reporter in 2017 about the former The Apprentice host requesting to be in movies and television shows filmed in his buildings. "The deal was that if you wanted to shoot in one of his buildings, you had to write him in a part. [Director] Martin Brest had to write something in Scent of a Woman — and the whole crew was in on it," Damon said.
He continued, "You have to waste an hour of your day with a bullshit shot: Donald Trump walks in and Al Pacino’s like, “Hello, Mr. Trump!” — you had to call him by name — and then he exits. You waste a little time so that you can get the permit, and then you can cut the scene out. But I guess in Home Alone 2 they left it in."
