Perhaps Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. could put out a suitable public-health advisory. It might read as follows.
“Caution: Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS) causes Western elites to lose all sense of self-awareness. In fact, evidence shows that TDS-afflicted elites commonly confuse pettiness with moral virtue.”
Alas, a warning of that kind would arrive too late for veteran Hollywood director Chris Columbus, who, in an interview published Monday by San Francisco Chronicle, bemoaned President Donald Trump’s brief cameo in Columbus’ 1992 hit sequel “Home Alone 2: Lost in New York,” complaining that the then-future president’s much-ballyhooed seven seconds of screen time had “become this curse.”
In fact, Columbus went as far as to say that he wished he could cut the iconic scene altogether.
“I just wish it was gone,” the director said.
During the scene in question, the film’s young star, Macaulay Culkin, received directions from the Trumpinside New York’s Plaza Hotel, which Trump then owned.
So why not simply edit out the scene? After all, other directors, such as George Lucas of “Star Wars” fame, have made massive edits to their classic films. And the Chronicle report doesn’t mention it, but the cameo was one of several scenes cut from the movie a decade ago by the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. (The explanation was that it was to make more room for advertisements.)
Ironically, Columbus’ TDS provided a convenient excuse for not doing so.
Have you seen any of the “Home Alone” movies?
“I can’t cut it,” the director said. “If I cut it, I’ll probably be sent out of the country. I’ll be considered sort of not fit to live in the United States, so I’ll have to go back to Italy or something.”
No doubt Columbus — American-born and raised, as the Chronicle noted — meant that as a swipe at Trump’s deportation policies.
Surely, however, a man of real character would regard deportation as a small price to pay for lifting a “curse.”
Perhaps Columbus remains haunted by the scene’s — and Trump’s — transcendent popularity.
“We screened the film in Chicago, and when that moment came onscreen the audience went crazy,” the director told the Chronicle. “They cheered and they cheered and they thought it was hilarious. I think I know a lot about comedy, but I don’t, obviously, because I never thought that was going to be considered hilarious.”
“Years later, it’s become this curse. It’s become this thing that I wish it was not there,” he added.
What a revealing set of statements. “I had no idea they would love him so much and find him so funny,” Columbus effectively said. “But I don’t care what the plebes like. I only care what establishment journalists and my elite friends think. I wish I could get rid of the scene.”
Indeed, Trump has formed a powerful bond with ordinary Americans in part because they love the president’s authenticity. They can also see that Trump, unlike Columbus and others of his ilk, does not take himself too seriously.
Furthermore, Trump’s cameo undoubtedly chaps Columbus’ backside for reasons the director could never acknowledge even if he recognized them.
Specifically, that cameo reminds Hollywood’s elites that they once loved Trump. They loved him, in fact, until he decided to run for president.
So why do they hate him now? After all, Trump has not changed. The establishment’s collective view of Trump changed once he emerged as a powerful critic of their globalist order and a friend to ordinary working Americans whom globalists have derided and fleeced for decades.
Thus, Hollywood elites’ flip-flop on Trump serves as a standing indictment of their own vacuity. They believe nothing besides what other powerful and fashionable people tell them to believe. And they know it deep down, which undoubtedly makes them hate themselves even more.
Moreover, only elites have the luxury of hating Trump so much that they obsess over a 30-year-old cameo. Surely they know that, too, which must intensify their feelings of self-loathing.
Indeed, only a man who truly despises himself could boast of his own pettiness the way Columbus did.
In the end, therefore, perhaps Kennedy could expand the aforementioned public-health advisory to include one additional warning. Namely, “those affected by TDS will invariably expose themselves as the mental and moral inferiors of the man they hate.”
Advertise with The Western Journal and reach millions of highly engaged readers, while supporting our work. Advertise Today.
