Donald Trump’s cameo in Home Alone 2 was the result of him bullying his way into the film, director Chris Columbus has said.
Trump has a brief exchange with Kevin McCallister (Macaulay Culkin) when the boy asks him for direction. Trump instructs him to go “down the hall and to the left”.
According to Columbus, the short sequence was the result of Trump muscling his way into the movie. At the time, Trump was the owner of the Plaza Hotel, where Kevin seeks refuge after losing track of his family.
“Like most locations in New York City, you just pay a fee and you are allowed to shoot in that location. We approached The Plaza Hotel, which Trump owned at the time, because we wanted to shoot in the lobby,” Columbus told Insider, adding that it was impossible to replicate the famous hotel on a soundstage.
Trump, according to Columbus, “said OK”, but added an extra condition.
“We paid the fee, but he also 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,” the director added.
He recalled people “cheered” when Trump appeared on-screen during an early screening of the film.
“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,” he added.
Home Alone 2 was released in 1992, two years after the original. Three more films followed, but they did not involve Columbus nor Culkin, and they did not attain the same cult status as the first two.
A reboot of Home Alone is in the works at Disney+, starring Archie Yates, Rob Delaney, and Ellie Kemper.
