‘Home Alone 2’ Director Says Donald Trump ‘Bullied’ His Way Into Cameo

It’s that time of year again when families gather around the TV to watch their favorite holiday movie. Whether it be White Christmas (1954), Elf (2003), or the classic Christmas movie Die Hard (1990), it is a time for togetherness and enjoying the season. For some families, their favorite Christmas movie is Home Alone (1990), starring Macaulay Culkin, Catherine O’Hara, Joe Pesci, and Daniel Stern.

The original Home Alone was such a hit that it spawned a sequel, Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992). In this sequel, star Macaulay Culkin finds himself alone in New York with the Wet Bandits following close behind him. The movie brought back most of the original cast, and Chris Columbus was back as director. But being in New York allowed for a special cameo.

Donald Trump was not very well known outside of New York when filming. This was before The Apprentice and the White House. But Mr. Trump owned the Plaza Hotel in Manahattan at the time. Every Home Alone fan will remember that Kevin McCallister stayed in the hotel, and there were many scenes filmed in the hotel’s lobby.

Like all locations in New York, Home Alone 2 needed permission before filming in the hotel, requiring them to speak to Donald Trump. Trump agreed to allow them to film, but he had one condition: he wanted a cameo.

Director Chris Columbus said:

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. We couldn’t rebuild The Plaza on a soundstage. 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.’ 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.’

And that would have been the end of it, except for that stop in the White House. Years later, fans would protest against Trump being in the movie, including Macaulay Culkin, who said that he wanted the scene cut from the film. But it remains in the movie for all to see and remains one of Disney’s strangest cameos. 

In the wide-ranging interview about the two Home Alone films, Columbus also revealed that he had approached Robert DeNiro to play one of the Wet Bandits. But Columbus said that DeNiro never really considered it, and the role went to his partner in several films and good friend, Joe Pesci.

Columbus also revealed that he had only gotten the job as director of Home Alone after he quit Christmas Vacation (1989). Apparently, Chevy Chase was such a pain to work with on that film that Columbus quit. Writer John Hughes decided it took guts for the little-known Columbus to leave such a high-profile movie that he offered him Home Alone, and the rest is history. Columbus would go on to direct Mrs Doubtfire (1993) with Robin Williams, the first two Harry Potter films, and Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lighting Thief (2010). 

We will continue to update this story at Disney Fanatic.