President-elect Donald Trump made his name as a billionaire real estate mogul and celebrity gossip column fixture before rising to reality show stardom with “The Apprentice.”
The 78-year-old politician, who begins his second term as president of the United States on Jan. 20, hosted and co-produced the hit NBC series from 2005 to 2017.
However, Trump’s starring role on “The Apprentice” was far from his first venture into the entertainment industry. In 2007, he was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for producing the Miss Universe pageants after buying the organization in 1996.
In addition, Trump has racked up a lengthy resume of acting credits over the years, though he typically plays himself. Aside from former Hollywood star Ronald Reagan, Trump is the only president who had acting roles before taking office.
In 1994, Trump made one of his most memorable cameo appearances in the classic Christmas comedy “Home Alone 2: Lost in New York.” A sequel to the hit film “Home Alone,” the movie follows 10-year-old Kevin McCallister (Macaulay Culkin), who finds himself once again stranded without his family during Christmas, this time in New York City.
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One scene featured Kevin, armed with his father’s credit card, strolling into Manhattan’s ritzy The Plaza Hotel, where he rents a room. While walking through the building, Kevin runs into Trump, who owned the hotel at the time.
“Excuse me, where’s the lobby?” Kevin asks Trump.
Trump points his finger and tells Kevin, “Down the hall and to the left.”
While “Home Alone 2: Lost in New York” is often cited as Trump’s most famous cameo, the president-elect has appeared in a number of famous movies and television shows.
Here’s a look at Trump’s other notable performances.
Trump made his acting debut in the 1989 romantic comedy fantasy film “Ghost’s Can’t Do it,” which starred Bo Derek and Anthony Quinn. Several scenes featured Trump, who played himself, negotiating a business deal and flirting with Derek’s character, widowed heiress Katie Scott.
Their scenes largely took place in boardrooms in New York City, where Katie was meeting rich colleagues of her deceased husband in order to carry out a nefarious plan.
Upon its release, “Ghosts Can’t Do It” was critically panned and became a box-office flop.
However, Derek complimented Trump’s acting skills in a 2021 interview with Yahoo! Entertainment. The “10” star said Trump did “great” in the film.
“Looking back, I knew Donald Trump,” Derek recalled. “We just got a call from a mutual friend saying, ‘Donald you know is looking to be in movies. And I know you’re making a movie now. Can you – is there a cameo you could put him in?’”
Derek went on to explain that she and her team agreed to put Trump in the film because they “were going to be in New York anyway.”
“We wrote a little scene,” Derek said. “And he was in the movie.”
Trump’s first soap opera appearance came in a 1992 episode of the long-running series “All My Children.” However, Trump later admitted that he did not find the experience to be particularly memorable.
In Gary Warner’s 1994 biography, “All My Children: The Complete Family Scrapbook” via Soap Opera Digest, the politician was quoted as saying, “Candidly, this is what I remember about my appearance on ‘All My Children.’ My driver pulled up at ABC, I dashed out of the car, and before I knew what happened, I was in the studio, standing in front of a camera and reading a line off a cue card. I shook hands with a few people, ran out the door, jumped back in my car, and I was gone. You have to remember, I’m a busy guy.”
Trump and then-wife and actress Marla Maples made cameo appearances as prospective buyers of the Banks’ mansion in a 1994 episode of “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” the family sitcom that launched Will Smith to stardom.
In the scene, the entire Banks family gathers in their living room when their butler, Geoffrey (Joseph Marcell), announces, “Sir, it is my esteemed pleasure to introduce Mr. and Mrs. Donald Trump.”
As Trump and Maples walk in, Carlton Banks (Alfonso Ribeiro) exclaims, “It’s The Donald! Oh my God!” before fainting from excitement. Uncle Phil (James Avery) catches Carlton and struggles to lay him on the sofa as he says, “Um, Mr. and Mrs. Trump, it’s an honor to meet you.”
Uncle Phil shakes Trump’s hand and says, “Ron said he had a rich uncle, but Donald Trump …”
“I like keeping a low profile,” Trump tells him.
Hilary Banks introduces herself to Trump and says, “You know, you look much richer in person.”
Will then steps forward to shake hands with Trump and Maples, saying, “Hey, listen, you are getting a great house here. And this is quite a deal you’re getting for it, too.”
Pulling Trump aside, Will says, “Let me tell you what, throw in another $50 grand, I’ll cut the grass for you every Saturday.”
“Look folks, before we go too far, I’ve got something to tell you,” Trump says before he is interrupted by Ashley (Tatyana M. Ali), who doesn’t want the house to be sold.
“Excuse me, but I’ve got something to tell you first. Thank you for ruining my life!” she says before storming out.
“What did you do?” Maples asks Trump, who replies, “Everybody’s always blaming me for everything.”
Trump’s real estate agent then tells the Banks family that there has been a “little mistake.” He admits there was an address mix-up and the Banks’ house was not the childhood home of Trump’s nephew, which was the reason that Trump was interested in the property.
“I don’t know what to say except I’m sorry,” the real estate agent tells Phil, who says, “That makes two of us.”
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“Well, that’s business,” says Trump. “Let’s go down the street. I brought cash. It’s quicker.”
“Nice meeting you all,” Maples says, before turning to Trump. “It’s just as well. It’s too much of a fixer-upper,” she adds.
The 1994 family comedy “The Little Rascals” featured Trump in a rare role in which he did not play himself. The politician portrayed Waldo Johnston II, the father of spoiled rich kid Waldo Johnston III (Blake McIver Ewing).
Trump appeared in one scene featuring the movie’s climatic go-kart race. He was seen sitting in the stands when Waldo called him from his go-kart during the race to tell him, “Hi Dad, it’s me. You’re going to be so proud of me. I’m going to win this race!”
“Waldo, you’re the best son money can buy,” Trump replies.
After the mystery TV series “Hart to Hart” ended in 1984, the show’s leading actors, Robert Wagner and Stefanie Powers, went on to star in eight made-for-TV movies that were based on the show. Trump appeared in the fifth movie, 1995’s “Hart to Hart: Secrets of the Hart.”
In the film, Jonathan Hart (Wagner), who is an orphan, discovers he might have a long-lost sister. He is then approached by a social-climbing waiter named Stuart Morris (Jason Bateman), who convinces Jonathan that his aunt, Maureen Collier (Marion Ross), is his sister.
At the end of the movie, Trump rolls up in a limousine, and it is revealed that he is actually Maureen’s long-lost brother. While greeting an awestruck Maureen, Trump asks, “Are you as nervous as I am?” to which she replies, “More.” The reunited siblings ride off in the limo together along with Stuart, who is heard pitching Trump his business ideas.
In a 1996 episode of the sitcom “The Nanny,” Trump appeared as himself while visiting Fran Fine, the titular nanny played by Fran Drescher. During the scene, Fran attempts to introduce her boss-turned-husband, Max Sheffield (Charles Shaughnessy), to Trump before interrupting herself and saying, “‘Oh, what am I talking about? All you handsome zillionaires know each other.”
The scene ends with Trump walking out the door before receiving a call on a cellphone in his coat pocket: “Hello? I told you not to call me on this line again,” he says before hanging up. A phone in Trump’s other coat pocket rings, and he picks it up, telling the caller, “That’s better.”
In a 2020 interview with People magazine, Drescher revealed that Fran’s line originally referred to Sheffield and Trump as millionaires. However, Trump’s assistant sent Drescher’s now ex-husband, Marc Jacobson, a note that read, “Mr. Trump is not a millionaire. He’s a billionaire, and we’d like you to change the script.'”
Believing that using the word “billionaire” would be “too on the money” for her character to say, Drescher suggested changing it to “zillionaire,” which Trump approved.
Though Whoopi Goldberg has frequently voiced her strong disapproval of Trump, the president-elect made cameos in two of “The View” host’s movies in 1996.
In “The Associate,” Trump played himself while Goldberg starred as investment banker Laurel Ayres who invents a fictional White male business partner so she is taken more seriously in the business world.
“Eddie” starred Goldberg as Edwina “Eddie” Franklin, a chauffeur and New York Knicks superfan. After Eddie wins a contest to be the team’s honorary coach, she becomes the Knicks’ head coach after impressing the owner with her skills.
In the movie, Trump once again played himself, giving an interview about Goldberg’s success as the head coach. He tells the interviewer, “Actually, Eddie was my idea from the beginning.”
“NightMan” was a TV series that aired for two seasons from 1997 to 1999 and starred Matt McColm as a saxophonist-turned-superhero. In 1997, Trump appeared in a season 1 episode titled “Face to Face.” In the episode, prison escapee E. Haskell Bridges (Cyril O’Reilly) develops the ability to change his face at will after undergoing plastic surgery.
During one scene, Bridges is seen driving when he asks his girlfriend to call a bank and tell them that “they’ll have a very special guest.” Bridges then holds up a copy of the businessman’s book, “The Art of the Deal,” and morphs into Trump. Trump, as Bridges, later walks into a bank where he withdraws $10,000 from the astonished bank manager.
Trump appeared in a season 1 episode of the sitcom “Suddenly Susan,” which starred Brooke Shields as Susan Keane, a writer at the fictional San Francisco magazine “The Gate.” In the 1997 episode “I’ll See That and Raise You Susan,” Susan’s boss, Jack Richmond (Judd Nelson), bets his stakes in the magazine during a poker game with Trump, John McEnroe, Mr. T and former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown.
During the episode, Kathy Griffin’s character, Vicki Groener, attempts to pitch Trump to invest in a magazine titled “Skazzy” while he is dining at a restaurant. In an ironic case of life imitating art, her tactics involved unveiling a cover of “Skazzy” featuring a photo of Trump with the headline “Our Next President.”
Trump was name-dropped in the first episode of “Sex in the City” when the hit HBO show premiered in 1998. After Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) meets her main love interest, the wealthy and successful Mr. Big (Chris Noth), Samantha Jones (Kim Cattrall) refers to him as the “next Donald Trump.”
In the show’s second season, Trump himself appeared in a scene from the 1999 episode “The Man, the Myth, the Viagra.” Samantha is seen sitting in a bar while Trump and an elderly man named Ed have lunch at a table in the background.
“Samantha, a Cosmopolitan and Donald Trump … you just don’t get more New York than that,” Carrie says in a voice-over.
Samantha glances over her shoulder at the two while Ed flashes a smile at her. Trump notices the exchange and gives Samantha an approving look before turning back to Ed.
“Listen, Ed, I’ve got to go,” Trump says while shaking the other man’s hand.
“But think about it. I’ll be at my office at Trump Tower,” he adds as he walks away.
Trump made an appearance as himself in the 2001 romantic comedy “Two Weeks Notice” starring Hugh Grant as billionaire CEO George Wade and Sandra Bullock as his long-suffering chief counsel, Lucy Kelson.
In one scene, Wade encounters Trump at a party. After greeting each other, Trump asks Wade if Lucy “finally dumped” him and then threatens to steal away her replacement.
Wade expresses his doubts that Trump will succeed, noting that his new chief counsel, June Carver (Alicia Witt), “seems quite loyal to me.”
“Let me be the judge of that,” Trump tells him.
“All right. I’m not intimidated. I’ll even lead you to her, she’s over there somewhere,” Wade replies as the two walk away.
In an October appearance on “The Graham Norton Show,” Grant said Trump’s cameo wasn’t particularly memorable to him.
“He played a bit part as himself in a romantic comedy I did with Sandra Bullock,” the “Love Actually” actor said. “But the fact is that I don’t really remember him very well. The night he came, I had a bet with Sandy that I could make the chairman of Warner Bros. cry by 9 p.m.”
“And I was completely focused on that. It’s quite a big bet. She didn’t believe I could do it, but I did it,” he added. Grant did not share how he made the chairman cry but recalled that he was in a “flood of tears by 8:30 p.m.”
“So I’m afraid Donald Trump didn’t really register,” Grant added.
Trump’s wife, Melania, made her big-screen debut when she appeared alongside her husband in the hit 2001 comedy “Zoolander.” Ben Stiller directed the movie in which he also starred as the egotistical male model Derek Zoolander.
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In one scene, Trump and Melania are giving interviews on the red carpet at the VH1 Fashion Awards and the future president comments on Zoolander’s contributions to the fashion and modeling world.
While speaking with a reporter from E! News, Trump says, “Without Derek Zoolander, male modeling wouldn’t be what it is today.”
Trump’s most recent acting role was a cameo appearance in a 2005 episode of the soap opera “Days of Our Lives.” During the episode, Nicole Walker (Arianne Zucker) approaches Trump and asks him for a job at his company, insinuating that sexual favors would be involved.
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“That’s an interesting proposition, Mrs. Walker. I’ll get back to you,” Trump tells her.
“Really?” she asks, to which he replies, “Yeah, really.”
“Really?” Nicole asks again.
“No,” Trump says as he walks away.
