Donald Trump criticized “Home Alone 2: Lost in New York” director Chris Columbus on Wednesday for claiming in an interview that Trump bullied his way into the 1992 sequel.
On Trump’s social media platform Truth Social, the former U.S. president said that Columbus and the production team were “begging me to make a cameo appearance in ‘Home Alone 2.’”
“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,” Trump wrote. “I agreed, and the rest is history! That little cameo took off like a rocket, and the movie was a big success, and still is, especially around Christmas time. People call me whenever it is aired.”
In a 2020 interview with Business Insider, Columbus recalled how he and his team “wanted to shoot in the lobby” of the Plaza because they “couldn’t rebuild” the New York hotel on a soundstage. They assumed they only needed to pay a fee to use the location, but Trump had another condition.
“‘The only way you can use the Plaza is if I’m in the movie,’” Columbus recalled Trump saying. “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. 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.”
“Nothing could be further from the truth,” Trump responded to Columbus’ statement. “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? Because I was, and still am, great for the movie, that’s why! Just another Hollywood guy from the past looking for a quick fix of Trump publicity for himself!”
With Christmas around the corner, many families are participating in annual traditions, such as watching holiday movies, decorating cookies, or singing carols. ‘90s kids have created their own unique tradition in recent years: rewatching Home Alone and wondering how in the world the McCallister family is so rich.
Home Alone was released in 1990 and went on to become one of the most beloved Christmas films of all time. Practically every ‘90s kid grew up watching the McCallister family around the holidays. A lot of Christmas classics, like Elf and National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, are timeless films that remain relevant to both children and adults. However, Home Alone is the kind of film that looks completely different when you watch it as an adult than when you watched it as a child. As a child, you probably thought Kevin McCallister (Macaulay Culkin) was a genius and longed for the day when you might be left home alone to do whatever you pleased and build cute little booby traps.
Rewatching the film as an adult, your thought process is a lot different. It’s a little more like: Ummm, why is this little eight-year-old more vindictive and sadistic than most serial killers and horror movie villains? He literally just woke up and chose violence. Your thoughts will inevitably turn to the McCallister family’s finances. How did you never notice that this family was probably in the top 1% of the wealthiest Americans?
Just how rich are the McCallisters?
(20th Century Studios)
Many of us ‘90s kids grew up with Home Alone, Cheaper by the Dozen, and The Brady Bunch. It was just normal for us to see families with a bajillion kids and not think much of it. However, now that most of us can’t even afford one person (ourselves), you start wondering how these families afforded all those kids. The McCallister family already has five children of their own, plus two cousins who appear to be staying with them while their parents are in Paris. Then there’s an aunt, an uncle, and their four kids who are also temporarily staying with the McCallisters. Huh, having 15 people in one house and traveling with them sounds pretty expensive. Where did they say they were going on their trip again?
Paris. 15 people went on a trip to Paris. Just the thought of paying for a trip to Paris for 15 people is enough to make most adult viewers lightheaded. We also can’t forget that plane ticket prices were higher in 1990 than today, and the four adults sat in first class. The Washington Post estimates that the same flight today would cost about $25,200, but back in 1990, the McCallisters would’ve paid roughly $35,620. So, the McCallisters spent on one flight what many people earn in a year nowadays. Not to mention the thousands of extra dollars they spent on food, transportation, and emergency flights home to get Kevin.
However, it was Kevin’s uncle, Rob (Ray Toler), who paid to fly out all 15 people. So he’s the only wealthy member of the family, right? Not quite. Isn’t the house that Kevin lives in awfully big, though? In fact, as adults, we all probably realized that it wasn’t a house at all. It’s a full-fledged mansion in the suburbs of Chicago. Today, the mansion is worth a whopping $2.3 million. While housing prices have risen, The New York Times still estimates a family would’ve needed an annual household income of at least $305,000 to afford that house in 1990. Plus, by Home Alone 2, the entire family is jetting out to Miami for Christmas, while Kevin spends an estimated $26,000 in New York City, all on his father’s credit card.
What do the McCallister’s do?
(20th Century Studios)
It’s a bit sad as an adult, watching Home Alone and having to tell your childhood self, “Sorry, but you’ll never be Kevin because you’re not part of the wealthiest family in America.” Plus, the film makes a little less sense considering the family’s income. This family is filthy rich, and we’re supposed to believe they didn’t have a whole team of nannies, cooks, and housekeepers at their home 24/7 to care for Kevin? They didn’t just shrug and decide to buy another kid when they realized Kevin was gone? They didn’t send their private jet to get him?
The NYT reported that the McCallister Family, in Home Alone, were likely pretty much millionaires. Which ruins the movie, cause I’m not about to feel bad for these rich people problems of “forgetting Kids.” Buy a new one. #homealone
But the biggest question you’ll be left with is how the McCallisters attained their fortune. The films never reveal what Kevin’s parents’ professions are. It’s quite rude. I just watched this family spend more in one day than I’ve earned in my life, and they won’t tell me how? At the same time, it could make the movies a bit more fun to watch, considering the fan theories about the family’s mysterious wealth. A prominent theory is that Kevin’s family is involved in organized crime, which explains their fortune, why their home was targeted, and how Kevin learned his brutality. Even The New York Times acknowledged it couldn’t rule out this theory.
There’s also the possibility that they simply inherited their fortune. What are the odds that both Kevin’s dad and uncle are extremely wealthy? The wealth was probably passed down from the dad’s side of the family. Other theories suggest the family was involved in the commodities market, while, according to the movie novelization, the parents worked in hedge funds and fashion design.
The whole family was rich
The house in NYC where his uncle lived was worth millions in 1992. They went to live in Paris that is a rich family.
The novelization of the movie said that Mr. McAllister was a hedge fund guy and Mrs. McAllister was a fashion designer, hence all the manaqueins around the house. They’re rich af.
I think the theory that the father was in the mafia is a little more satisfying, though. You can watch the Home Alone series and smirk at the McCallisters enjoying their mansion and Paris and Miami trips, knowing that they’re probably going to jail and their son’s going to be a mob boss by age 12.
Among the many “reassessments” of Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, complete with its implausible representation of realistic geographic proximity, one that hasn’t really been called out is the idea that everyone “hearts” New York when Daddy’s credit card is still working. In fact, the only reason Kevin McCallister (Macaulay Culkin) doesn’t immediately despise NYC is because he “just happened” (thanks to the careful plot device curation of John Hughes) to need some batteries for his Talkboy. The batteries, of course, being located in his dad Peter’s (John Heard) man bag that Kevin ends up holding onto in the midst of getting on the wrong flight. And what else would Peter keep in there but his fully-loaded wallet? Here it bears bringing up that while everyone likes to meme about Peter McCallister being rich—because how else could he afford a house like that and all those vacations with so many mouths to feed?—the McCallister family is decidedly middle-class by 90s standards. The family only seems “rich” in the present because it’s impossible for most people to keep their head above water in this post-capitalist society still clinging to Empire “ideals” of capitalism. That said, money and exuding the appearance of wealth was arguably more important in the 90s—and easier to carry off for “average” people.
Not to mention faux rich ones like none other than Donald Trump himself, who illustriously cameos at the twenty-six-minute-forty-five-second mark to give Kevin the oh-so-difficult-to-discern information that the lobby is “down the hall and to the left.” And yes, it’s a wonder Trump could manage to complete that scant amount of dialogue without biffing it. The reason for his appearance stemmed from buying The Plaza Hotel in 1988 for 407 million dollars (of money borrowed from banks—because Trump is the epitome of the “American dream”… being secured through shady means and fake money). It didn’t take long for Trump’s lack of business acumen (despite cultivating a reputation to the contrary) to show up in the form of renovating and operating the hotel at a considerable loss… specifically 600 million dollars’ worth of loss by 1992, the very year that Home Alone 2: Lost in New York would come out. Yet Trump, forever concerned with appearances, still had the gall to appear in the movie as The Plaza’s “owner” despite already negotiating a prepackaged bankruptcy deal with his conglomerate of bank creditors, ultimately “led” by Citibank. One that was arranged in November, the very month of the Home Alone sequel’s release. How poetic indeed.
So it is that Trump’s appearance in the movie is emblematic of a larger truth about America in general and New York City specifically: it’s never about actually having money, so much as radiating the illusion that you do (see also: Anna Delvey). Kevin, too, embodies this with his confidence, the very word giving birth to “con,” which means both to win someone’s confidence and to have the confidence to believe in one’s own lies. As Kevin does when he approaches the front desk at the hotel with a whole backstory ready to provide that allows him to rather seamlessly use the credit card that will secure him so much ephemeral fun on this impromptu Christmas vacation. Sure, “Concierge” a.k.a. Mr. Hector (Tim Curry) is overtly suspicious because he’s probably jealous he never came up with such a scheme when he was younger, but suspicion alone is not enough to make one turn away potential income for their place of business. Proving, as always, that money—even the fake money known as credit—talks.
Until, of course, it’s reported as stolen. A revelation that brings a Grinch-esque smile to Mr. Hector’s face because, like most broke asses, he gets his jollies from reining in those who might enjoy themselves thanks to money they didn’t earn. It’s from this moment (at approximately the forty-three-minute mark in the movie when the word “STOLEN” flashes on The Plaza’s machine after Mr. Hector does a check on it) forward when Kevin starts to understand just how much New York actually blows without money at one’s disposal. And sure, there have been many attempts, via various localized “free event” websites, to help people delude themselves into believing they can have a good time with little to no disposable income, but, after a while, you’re just that sad poor person who’s clearly only at the place in question because something about it was free or cheap (relatively speaking).
To intensify the reality that having no money in New York is fucking bleak, Kevin then comes face-to-face with the notorious Pigeon Lady. She, too, has deluded herself into believing that the best things in life are free in the “greatest” city in the world, showing Kevin that you can be cultured even without money by taking him to the attic (where other discarded things are kept) in Carnegie Hall and declaring, “I’ve heard the world’s great music from here. Ella Fitzgerald, Count Basie, Frank Sinatra, Luciano Pavarotti.”
But, as any insolvent person living in NY has found out, the loopholes to enjoy “free” activities have become increasingly few and far between. To boot, you’re never going to be “seen” without scores of dough, even if only on credit. That’s why the Pigeon Lady tells Kevin, “People pass me in the street, they see me, but they try to ignore me. They prefer I wasn’t part of their city.” And why? Because she’s moneyless “riffraff.” Might as well be dead if you’re broke—that’s the takeaway New York imparts on those who can’t manage “the grind.” Those who do find more “under the table” ways to survive are, in turn, met with fear and vitriol, as indicated by Kevin’s telling reactions to the prostitutes and deranged homeless people orbiting the periphery of Central Park (for, again, this was a period in NY history that was seedier, and far less sanitized than it is now, especially by Central Park).
In the years since this movie was released, even “alternate methods” of moneymaking in the “big city” have become progressively impossible. So it is that in the past couple of decades, the “I ‘Heart’ NY” slogan has given way to “I Can’t Afford to ‘Heart’ NY.” Neither could Kevin, in the end. For the conclusion of Home Alone 2: Lost in New York is for his dad to unearth the amount Kevin charged to his room at The Plaza—a whopping (even now) $967.43 (ballooned to that price by the addition of a $239.43 gratuity). So sure, New York is all fun and wonderment on Daddy’s dime. Until, inevitably, Daddy cuts off the purse strings. For even he’s too broke for New York.
Ironically enough, the movie’s beloved screenwriter, John Hughes, would end up dying in Manhattan. While taking a morning stroll on West 55th Street… just a stone’s throw to The Plaza. Perhaps he came across an obscene price point somewhere along the way that contributed to his heart attack, and made him realize that even when you’re rich, living in New York is financially untenable. Particularly when considering what one gets in return for all their payments (including the emotional ones).
