Director Chris Columbus has revealed that he wishes he could remove Donald Trump’s brief appearance from the 1992 film Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. In an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle, Columbus described the seven-second cameo as a “curse” and said, “I just wish it was gone.” He added sarcastically, “If I cut it, I’ll probably be sent out of the country. I’ll be considered not fit to live in the United States.”
The cameo took place when Kevin McCallister, played by Macaulay Culkin, enters New York’s Plaza Hotel and briefly asks Trump for directions. At the time, Trump owned the Plaza Hotel and, according to Columbus, insisted on being included in the film in exchange for permission to shoot there. “We paid the fee,” Columbus previously said in a 2020 interview, “but he also said, ‘The only way you can use the Plaza is if I’m in the movie.’” Though hesitant, the filmmakers agreed. At the first screening, the audience surprisingly cheered at Trump’s appearance, which led Columbus to keep the scene in the final cut.
However, that decision has haunted him ever since, especially after Trump became president. Over the years, many fans have called for Trump to be digitally removed from the film. Macaulay Culkin even supported a viral online campaign suggesting Trump be replaced with a digitally aged version of himself. When one fan tweeted, “Petition to digitally replace Trump in Home Alone 2 with 40-year-old Macaulay Culkin,” the actor replied simply: “Sold.”
Trump, in turn, responded via his social platform Truth Social in 2023, claiming that Columbus was the one begging him to be in the movie. “I was very busy and didn’t want to do it,” Trump wrote. “They were very nice, but above all, persistent. I agreed, and the rest is history!” He went on to say the cameo helped boost the film’s success and accused Columbus of using his name for attention, calling him “just another Hollywood guy from the past looking for a quick fix of Trump publicity.”
Despite its success, Home Alone 2 continues to generate discussion over a cameo that was never meant to be so politically charged — one that, over 30 years later, remains a point of regret for the director.