Filmmaker Chris Columbus says Donald Trump’s cameo in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York has become a burden he wishes he could erase, though he jokes that doing so might get him deported under Trump’s administration.

“It’s become this curse,” Columbus told the San Francisco Chronicle in an interview published Monday, “It’s become an albatross for me. I just wish it was gone.”

Although Columbus was born and raised in the US, the San Francisco-based director of Italian descent quipped that he feared he would “have to go back to Italy or something” if he removed the cameo.

His remarks, made ahead of his tribute at the 68th San Francisco International Film Festival on April 26, revisit a controversy that reemerged in 2020, near the end of Trump’s first term. He previously told Business Insider that Trump’s brief appearance in the 1992 sequel was a condition for filming inside the Plaza Hotel, which Trump owned at the time.

As a prominent real estate mogul at the time, Trump “did bully his way into the movie,” Columbus said, noting the cameo was in addition to a location fee. According to Columbus, Trump told him, “The only way you can use the Plaza is if I’m in the movie.”

Just months before beginning a second presidential term in late 2023, Trump denied those claims on his Truth Social platform, asserting Columbus’ team was “begging” him to appear and that the cameo was “great for the movie.”

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Columbus chose not to respond immediately, but in the latest interview, he emphasized, “I’m not lying. 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 explained that his initial instinct was to cut Trump’s scene and regrets being swayed otherwise after a screening audience in Chicago “cheered … and cheered and … thought it was hilarious.”

“I never thought that was going to be considered hilarious,” Columbus said of the seven-second moment where Trump gives Macaulay Culkin’s character directions in the Plaza. “It’s become this thing that I wish … was not there.”

The idea of removing Trump from Home Alone 2 — which grossed $359 million to become the third-highest earning film of 1992 — has surfaced before, drawing both criticism and support. In 2019, Trump supporters protested when his cameo was edited out of a Canadian broadcast, while in early 2021, Macaulay Culkin publicly endorsed digitally erasing the former president from the film.

Columbus’ recent joke about being deported if he cut the scene nods to Trump’s history of harsh immigration policies and retaliation against his detractors.

For instance, since returning to office, Trump’s administration erroneously deported a Maryland man to a prison in El Salvador. Immigration officials have also detained academics across the country after they participated in pro-Palestine demonstrations.

Trump has also taken legal action against media outlets he believes have wronged him, suing CBS News for $20 billion over a 60 Minutes segment and the Des Moines Register for an inaccurate poll. He recently settled with ABC News for $15 million over a defamation case involving writer E. Jean Carroll, who a jury found he had “sexually abused,” not raped.

“I can’t cut it,” Columbus reportedly said of Trump’s appearance, adding, “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.”