CANADA’S NATIONAL PUBLIC broadcaster has been accused of making a politically motivated edit of the movie ‘Home Alone 2′ after Donald Trump’s cameo in the film was cut in a recent screening.

CBC confirmed that it removed the US President’s cameo from the movie following a social media outcry, but claimed that the edit was made before he was elected to the White House.

Trump appears very briefly in the film when its protagonist Kevin McCallister, played by Macaulay Culkin, struggles to navigate the hotel where he’s staying for Christmas.

He stops a man whom he doesn’t recognise wearing a long black overcoat and a red tie – Trump – to ask him how to get to the lobby. Trump replies: “Down the hall and to the left.”

The US president had purchased the Plaza Hotel in New York – the setting of many movie scenes, including several in ‘Home Alone 2′ – at the start of the 1990s.

“As is often the case with feature films adapted for television, ‘Home Alone 2′ was edited for time,” said CBC spokesman Chuck Thompson.

“The scene with Donald Trump was one of several that were cut from the movie as none of them were integral to the plot. These edits were done in 2014, when we first acquired the film and before Mr Trump was elected president,” he added.

But social media users accused the CBC of making a politically motivated decision, and Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr tweeted that he thought the edit was “pathetic”.

The US president seemed to find the controversy amusing, taking to Twitter on Thursday night to quip about his Canadian counterpart: “I guess Justin T [Trudeau] doesn’t much like my making him pay up on NATO or Trade!”

“The movie will never be the same!” Trump said, before clarifying “(Just kidding)”.

- © AFP 2019