Although Ronald Reagan, with 69 movies, is considered the only President of the United States who was also an actor, it cannot be denied that Donald Trump also attempted to be one at some point in his extensive career as a public figure.
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Despite being best known for television (he did 14 seasons of ‘The Apprentice’, which he left the year before becoming president), the current president of the United States has appeared in a total of eleven movies, overwhelmingly portraying himself repeatedly in more or less amusing cameos. Below, we present some of his most notable works, from worst to best.
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I need a body
In his first performance, Trump won the Razzie for Worst Supporting Actor and was nominated for Worst New Star (he lost to Sofia Coppola for ‘The Godfather Part III’). “The spirit of a recently deceased man returns from the afterlife and tries to stay with his wife”, is the synopsis of the film.
Love at Second Sight
Sandra Bullock y Hugh Grant star in this 2002 comedy, which is remembered for being one of the first to be filmed in a New York post the attacks on the Twin Towers. However, it also featured a mandatory cameo from Trump, who in this case dedicates twenty seconds to a conversation with Grant where he says he is going to steal an employee from him.
The conversation itself is not that important, because Grant doesn’t quite remember filming it, as he mentioned on “The Graham Norton Show”: “The night he arrived, he had a bet with Bullock that he could make the head of Warner Bros cry before 9 PM. And I was totally focused on that. It was a big bet. She didn’t think I could do it, but I did.”
Celebrity
Woody Allen, who has been very open about the disdain he feels for Trump, cast him for a ten-second role in ‘Celebrity,’ his cameo-heavy film, in which a reporter approached him for an interview. The then-businessman said, “I’m trying to buy St. Patrick’s Cathedral, maybe I’ll knock it down and put up a very, very tall and beautiful building.”
While presenting ‘Rifkin’s Festival’ in San Sebastián, Allen took the opportunity to talk about that cameo, saying that he did not regret “choosing Trump for a role in one of my films. In fact, I wish he had stayed there, in the entertainment world, instead of wanting to be president."
“Zoolander”
“If in ‘Celebrity’ he was given ten seconds, in ‘Zoolander’ he only needs five for us all to be surprised when we see him.” The defining comedy by Ben Stiller that has gone down in history includes Trump saying, “Without Derek Zoolander, male models wouldn’t be what they are today.” Interestingly, even the members of the movie don’t remember that cameo. John Hamburg, the film’s screenwriter, told Newsweek, “I’d love to help you, but honestly, I don’t even remember Trump being in it.”
“My Poor Little Angel 2”
Naturally, this classic couldn’t be left out. Undoubtedly, for many, the best appearance Trump has had, mainly because his appearance is as gratuitous as it is entertaining: Kevin asks him where the hotel lobby is, and he gives directions. The wink to the audience is that we perfectly know it’s his own hotel.
Neither Chris Columbus nor Macaulay Culkin remember it exactly, but the cinematographer, Julio Macat, did explain his experience to Newsweek: "He showed up on set, and Chris thought it would be fun for him to be in the movie. We were kind to him because he was the owner of the Plaza Hotel, and we were filming there. We were the kings of the dance thanks to the success of ‘Home Alone,’ and he wanted to hang out with us, like a moth drawn to a flame." In fact, as he clarifies, the cameo was just supposed to be a walk-through, blink-and-you-miss-it, but he turned around at the perfect moment to appear on camera.