DONALD TRUMP “bullied” his way into a cameo appearance in Home Alone 2: Lost In New York, according to the film’s director Chris Columbus.
Long before he embarked on a career in politics, Trump popped up alongside Macaulay Culkin in the hit sequel to the John Hughes-penned Christmas classic.
He features in a brief exchange with Culkin’s character Kevin McCallister, who asks the business mogul for directions in the lobby of the Trump-owned Plaza Hotel in New York.
Trump even has a line of dialogue, instructing Kevin to go “down the hall and to the left” before doing a double take at the sight of a young boy alone in the Big Apple.
A short but surprisingly memorable sequence, while the appearance might have appeared seemless on the screen, it apparently proved anything but behind the scenes.
According to Columbus, Trump insisted on appearing in Home Alone 2 as compensation for the filmmakers using the Plaza Hotel.
“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 explained to Insider.
A real-life hotel lobby was a crucial component of the film and one that was all but impossible to recreate on a soundstage.
The director claims that while Trump “said OK” to their request, his agreement came with 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 said.
Columbus said that he had planned on cutting the scene from the film once editing began but test audiences “cheered” when Trump appeared on the movie.
Their reaction convinced him to keep the scene in the movie.
“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 said.
Trump made a habit of popping up in TV shows and films in the 1990s and early 2000s.
The President makes a brief appearance in the Ben Stiller comedy Zoolander and popped up in shows like Suddenly Susan, The Drew Carey Show and Sex and the City.
Earlier this year, Stiller revealed he has repeatedly refused requests for him to remove Trump’s cameo from Zoolander.
