Macaulay Culkin once gave a one-word answer to the idea of removing Donald Trump from Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. His response was simple: "Sold."

The exchange took place on 13 January 2021, when fans were sharing suggestions for digitally erasing Trump's brief appearance in the 1992 Christmas film. Although Culkin's reaction was genuine, it was not an announcement that the movie would be officially altered.

The story has another layer, however. Director Chris Columbus has since publicly expressed regret over the cameo, while Trump has disputed the filmmaker's account of how he ended up in the movie.

What Macaulay Culkin actually said about replacing Trump

In the original scene, Kevin McCallister encounters Trump inside New York's Plaza Hotel and asks him for directions to the lobby. Trump, who owned the hotel at the time, points him down the hallway.

In January 2021, following the attack on the US Capitol and Trump's suspension from major social media platforms, a fan proposed replacing the cameo with a digitally inserted version of Culkin at age 40.

Culkin replied "Sold" to the suggestion.

He also responded "Bravo" to a separate fan-made video that removed Trump from the footage entirely, leaving Kevin apparently speaking to an empty hallway.

Both reactions were widely reported at the time. Neither established that Culkin was involved in an official new version of the film, and the edited video was a fan creation rather than a studio release.

Why Donald Trump appeared in Home Alone 2

The circumstances behind the cameo have themselves become a source of disagreement.

In a 2020 interview with Business Insider, Columbus said the production needed access to the Plaza Hotel's lobby and had paid the location fee.

According to Columbus, Trump also required a personal appearance in the film as a condition of allowing the shoot to proceed.

The director said he initially considered removing the cameo, but changed his mind after audiences cheered Trump's appearance during a test screening.

Trump challenged that account in December 2023. In a Truth Social post, he claimed the filmmakers had been persistent in asking him to appear and rejected Columbus's suggestion that he had forced his way into the production.

The competing accounts remain disputed. Columbus has maintained that the appearance was tied to securing the hotel location, while Trump has insisted that the filmmakers wanted him in the movie.

The director later said he wished the cameo was gone

In April 2025, Columbus revisited the subject in an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle.

Describing the cameo as an "albatross", he said he wished it had never been included and rejected Trump's version of events.

Columbus also joked that removing the scene might get him deported, a sarcastic reference to the Trump administration's immigration policies. His remarks were an expression of frustration, not an announcement of plans to edit the film.

Has Donald Trump ever actually been removed from Home Alone 2?

There is an important distinction between the online campaign and an earlier television edit.

Canada's public broadcaster CBC aired a version of Home Alone 2 without Trump's cameo in December 2019. The decision attracted political criticism, but the broadcaster said the edit had actually been made in 2014, before Trump announced his first presidential campaign.

According to CBC, the scene was removed alongside other material to shorten the film for television advertising. PolitiFact examined the explanation and found no evidence that the edit had been politically motivated.

That television cut was therefore separate from Culkin's 2021 comments and the fan-made digital edits circulating online.

What Culkin actually endorsed was a humorous suggestion from viewers. Columbus's later comments show that the director also regrets the cameo, but neither development amounted to confirmation of an official replacement or permanent removal from the original film.