Former President Donald Trump gloated that the production team behind Home Alone 2: Lost In New York had pleaded with him to appear in the film, attributing his involvement to its success.
Chris Columbus, who directed the 1992 Macaulay Culkin hit told Business Insider that Trump had attached his cameo appearance in the film as a condition for allowing the use of his Plaza Hotel during production.
However, in a post on Truth Social, Trump stated the opposite of what the director claimed on Wednesday.
30 years ago (how time flies!), Director Chris Columbus, and others, were begging me to make a cameo appearance in Home Alone 2,” he began.
Just watched Home Alone 2. Yes Trump owned The Plaza Hotel. He got himself in the movie. Par for the course with The Donald. Get over it.
— Cody Elijah (@CodyElijah1) December 25, 2023
“I was very busy, and didn’t want to do it. They were very nice, but above all, persistent. I agreed, and the rest is history!”
In the scene, Culkin’s character Kevin McCallister approaches Trump for directions in the lobby of the Plaza Hotel after taking the wrong flight and ending up traveling solo in New York instead of Miami with his family.
“That little cameo took off like a rocket, and the movie was a big success, and still is, especially around Christmas time,” Trump added. “People call me whenever it is aired.”
“Now, however, 30 years later, Columbus (what was his real name?) put out a statement that I bullied myself into the movie. Nothing could be further from the truth,” he contended.
Columbus told the outlet that the production required physical access to the Plaza Hotel as it was a location that couldn’t be easily recreated on a film set.
Trump is spilling the tea regarding the REAL story about his cameo in Home Alone 2. pic.twitter.com/wG2nbdGswC
— Laura Loomer (@LauraLoomer) December 27, 2023
He noted that acquiring shooting rights at a location typically involves payment of a fee and the production is allowed to film there.
Columbus said that when the producers approached the Plaza Hotel, Trump’s inclusion became an additional condition.
“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,” he recalled.
“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,” the director went on.
‘So I said to my editor, “Leave him in the movie. It’s a moment for the audience,”‘ Columbus concluded. “But he did bully his way into the movie.”
The ex-president disputed the use of the term “bully” and underscored the impact of his cameo on the success of the film.
“That cameo helped make the movie a success, but if they felt bullied, or didn’t want me, why did they put me in, and keep me there, for over 30 years?” He pointed out.
“Because I was, and still am, great for the movie, that’s why!” he responded hilariously.
“Just another Hollywood guy from the past looking for a quick fix of Trump publicity for himself!”
This wasn’t the first time Columbus made the assertion about Trump bullying his way into the film. He gave a nearly identical account to PEOPLE in November 2020, but the then-president was likely too busy to be made aware.
The Bourne Identity star Matt Damon said that after Home Alone 2, Trump cameos became a permanent stipulation of filming at locations he owned.
“The deal was that if you wanted to shoot in one of his buildings, you had to write him in a part,” he told The Hollywood Reporter in 2017. “Martin Brest had to write something in Scent of a Woman — and the whole crew was in on it.”
H“You have to waste an hour of your day with a bulls**t shot: Donald Trump walks in and Al Pacino’s like, ‘Hello, Mr. Trump!’ — you had to call him by name — and then he exits,” he explained.
“You waste a little time so you can get the permit, and then you can cut the scene out,” Damon noted. “But I guess in Home Alone 2, they left it in.”