Big-name movie director fears Trump will deport him -- here's why
The U.S.-born director of ‘Home Alone 2’ is afraid of being deported.
Filmmaker Chris Columbus has told the San Francisco Chronicle that President Donald Trump’s cameo in his movie Home Alone 2: Lost in New York is “an albatross” that he wishes to remove.
“It’s become this curse,” Columbus said. “It’s become an albatross for me. I just wish it was gone.”
According to the Guardian, “Columbus’s comments were made in advance of a tribute he is scheduled to receive at the 68th San Francisco international film festival on 26 April.”
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It’s a controversy that stemmed from a 2020 Business Insider article when Columbus claimed that Trump "bullied" his way to have a cameo in the 1992 sequel. The filmmaker claimed not only did the film team have to “pay the fee” to use the Trump-owned building in the film, but also they were given a secondary condition, as Trump allegedly said, “The only way you can use the Plaza is if I’m in the movie.”
The president rebuked the claim in a 2023 Truth Social Post, saying Columbus’s team was “begging” him to make a cameo.
“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!”
The president’s perspective is his presence ended up being “great for the movie”.
“I never thought that was going to be considered hilarious,” Columbus told The Chronicle, referring to the seven-second scene in which Trump gives star Macaulay Culkin’s character directions on the Plaza Hotel. “It’s become this thing that I wish … was not there.”
Columbus hails from Italian ancestry and believes he “can’t cut” Trump’s cameo. “If I cut it, I’ll probably be sent out of this country. I’ll be considered sort of not fit to live in the United States.”
Columbus later added, he would likely “have to go back to Italy or something.”