The director of Home Alone 2 has confirmed that Donald Trump bullied his way into the film because of course he did.
In an interview with Insider, Chris Columbus (the director of the first two Harry Potter films) opened up about the 1992 Christmas classic that featured a scene in Manhattan’s Plaza Hotel. Trump owned the hotel at the time and the power-hungry businessman made sure he got a cameo appearance.
“Trump said okay,” Columbus said. “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 the 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,” Columbus continued.
The sequel to Home Alone saw Kevin McCallister (Macauley Culkin) stranded away from his family again, this time in New York City after losing them at the airport. At one point in the film, he checks in to The Plaza Hotel where he meets Trump.
The President has previous with pushing his way into films, like like the bully in preschool shoving his way into the sandbox.
Matt Damon explained in 2017 that Trump always enforced a cameo if one of his buildings were used as a location.
“The deal was that if you wanted to shoot in one of his buildings, you had to write him in a part,” Damon told The Hollywood Reporter. “Martin Brest had to write something in Scent of a Woman — and the whole crew was in on it.”
He added, “You have to waste an hour of your day with a bulls— shot: Donald Trump walks in and Al Pacino’s like, ‘Hello, Mr. Trump!’ — you had to call him by name — and then he exits.”
Trump has also made many other appearances in movies such as Two Weeks Notice, Little Rascals, and Zoolander, all presumably as unnecessary and unwelcome as his time in Home Alone 2.
Check out Donald Trump’s ego-boosting scene in Home Alone 2:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1WngHOFYVQ
