Director of movie 'Home Alone 2' regrets including Trump cameo

The director of Home Alone 2: Lost in New York says he wishes he had removed a scene from the 1992 movie with now-President Donald Trump because it has become a "curse."

Director Chris Columbus made the comment Tuesday in the San Francisco Chronicle.

"It’s become an albatross for me," he said. "I just wish it was gone. I can’t cut it. If I cut it, I’ll probably be sent out of the country. I’ll be considered sort of not fit to live in the United States, so I’ll have to go back to Italy or something."

Even though Kevin McCallister, the movie's main character, was running away from the criminals in New York City, Columbus filmed the Christmas film in another big city, Chicago.

"When that moment [with Trump] came onscreen, the audience went crazy," Columbus said. "They cheered, and they cheered, and they thought it was hilarious. I think I know a lot about comedy, but I don’t, obviously, because I never thought that was going to be considered hilarious."

In 2020, Columbus told Business Insider that Trump insisted on including him in the movie.

"We paid the fee, but he also said, 'The only way you can use the Plaza [hotel] is if I’m in the movie.' So we agreed to put him in the movie," he said.

Trump responded to Columbus's claim three years later, saying he never forced himself into the movie.

"30 years ago (how time flies!), Director Chris Columbus and others were begging me to make a cameo appearance in Home Alone 2," Trump posted on Truth Social. "They rented the Plaza Hotel in New York, which I owned at the time. 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!" 

Trump also wrote that his cameo in the movie made the movie successful, pointing out that if Columbus really didn't want Trump's appearance to remain in the movie, he could've removed the scene 30 years after the movie's release.

"Just another Hollywood guy from the past looking for a quick fix of Trump publicity for himself!" he wrote.

Columbus denied in the Chronicle story that he and other crew members wanted him to appear in the movie.

"Years later, it’s become this curse," he said. "It’s become this thing that I wish were not there. What’s going through this guy’s mind? He said I was lying. I’m not lying. He said I begged him to be in the movie, but there’s no world I would ever beg a non-actor to be in a movie. But we were desperate to get the Plaza Hotel," he told the Chronicle.

In 2016, Columbus supported then-Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, according to Variety magazine.