The ‘Home Alone’ Director Reveals How Donald Trump ‘Did Bully’ His Way Into The Sequel

While commemorating the 30th anniversary of Home Alone (feel old yet), director Chris Columbus shared some behind-the-scenes secrets from the film, including how now-President Donald Trump basically forced his way into the sequel. With Home Alone 2: Lost in New York taking place in the Big Apple, the director really wanted to shoot inside The Plaza, but that required dealing with its current owner at the time.

While the studio and Columbus assumed this would simply involve paying a “fee” to Trump, he took the money and then demanded to be in the film, or the deal was off. “So we agreed to put him in the movie,” Columbus said. However, the director still had the option to edit out Trump’s cameo, but he decided against it after a surprising test audience reaction. Via Insider:

“People cheered when Trump showed up on-screen,” Columbus said. “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.”

We know Trump still thinks very highly of his cameo, thanks to one of his classic tantrums during Christmas 2019. Apparently, the president caught wind that his part was cut from a Canadian TV broadcast of Home Alone 2, and instead of realizing that scenes are routinely edited out for broadcast, Trump blamed Prime Minister Justin Trudeau — for editing him out of Home Alone 2. You’re reading all of this correctly.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 27, 2019

As it turns out, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation cut Trump’s cameo all the way back in 2014, and for the completely mundane reason of making room for commercials. As of this writing, Trudeau has not been named as a suspect.