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Comicbook.com recently reported that Donald Trump's cameo in Home Alone 2 had been cut from the version of the film aired on the CBC.

The CBC responded that the cuts were made back in 2014:

"As is often the case with feature films adapted for television, Home Alone 2 was edited for time," Thompson said. "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."

Some people suspect the CBC is lying about the dates.

Did the scene get cut back in 2014?

shaunxer
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Yes, it probably happened in 2014.

It was already noticed in 2015. Twitter user, DENNISGRIMBLE, tweeted in December 2015:

Thanks @CBC for cutting @realDonaldTrump out of Home Alone 2.

Oddthinking
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motoDrizzt
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    Wow, great find! Anything earlier though? I found two other tweets saying it's 2015 but nothing in 2014 (I used the advanced search to look for tweets with the words CBC "trump, Home Alone" within 2014 and 2015.) https://twitter.com/gkozier/status/678704291767435264 https://twitter.com/InDistans/status/680674656920014848 – shaunxer Jan 02 '20 at 02:53
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    I've searched for it and cannot find any tweets about his removal in 2014, maybe CBC really is lying about it. Apparently there was a petition to remove it in December 8. So, I'm guessing they removed it between the petition and Christmas. We don't have much to go on other than CBC's word for it. Check [this search](https://twitter.com/search?l=&q=trump%20home%20alone%20cut%20OR%20deleted%20OR%20removed%20since%3A2014-01-01%20until%3A2016-01-01&src=typd) for more info. Either way, it was removed before he was the president, which is what all the commotion is about as I understand it. – John Hamilton Jan 02 '20 at 07:38
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    @Nat I thought I was onto something and wanted to research further. Maybe a good answer would've come out of it. Anyway, [this one with 200k signed, made the news](https://www.politicususa.com/2015/12/22/200000-people-sign-petition-telling-cnn-msbv.html) and while the petition doesn't have a date, the newspage is dated 2015/12/22. I've looked a bit further into it but with nothing to show. All the google searches are corrupted by news pages having the Trump controversy as sidebar news, so I'm getting false positives even with date restrictions. Maybe we'll get better results in a month or two. – John Hamilton Jan 02 '20 at 08:53
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    @Nat Certainly not implying that they did it that way, but I'm just saying that there was a petition so the scenes must have still been in the movie at that date, and removed later on. – John Hamilton Jan 02 '20 at 09:41
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    @motoDrizzt Well, the way you say it is condescending but I get your meaning. The scenes still being in the USA version doesn't prove anything at all, that's correct. I was just addressing the tweets about the matter. I think it'll be best to lay this matter to rest until we can do better searches or anything concrete comes from CBC (like a recording of a broadcast from 2014). – John Hamilton Jan 02 '20 at 13:38
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    @JohnHamilton: that [petition article from 2015/12/22](https://www.politicususa.com/2015/12/22/200000-people-sign-petition-telling-cnn-msbv.html) you linked earlier isn't about Home Alone 2. It's about *news* coverage of Trump and his presidential campaign being excessive. Not for US networks to cut Trump out of that movie like the CBC did! The date on it makes sense for that topic, well after the first Christmas season (2014/2015) after CBC's reported edits. – Peter Cordes Jan 02 '20 at 14:12
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    Anyone with even a casual familiarity with broadcast TV knows that cutting scenes from movies to reduce the runtime and allow for more advertising has been standard practice for generations. Running a complete uncut film on TV is literally the rare exception, not the norm. It would be much more surprising if the film had not been cut. – barbecue Jan 02 '20 at 18:00
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    This is not direct proof of CBC having removed Trump's part specifically in 2014 but it confirms that they had already cut things in 2014 when they acquired the film: https://twitter.com/danramoscomedy/status/548241473658175488 – MC10 Jan 02 '20 at 18:11
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    @barbecue Do they cut once and keep it, or change the cuts over the years? Home Alone has definitely aired on TV plenty long before the years asked in this question. – Izkata Jan 03 '20 at 19:24
  • @Izkata: it really depends on the context. Once you cut a movie the way you need it to be, you change the cuts only if your needs change. And sometimes not even in that case! When I was a kid, in Italy, many of our cartoons reels were imported most often than not from a different country than the producer one. And that country had already cut and added fade in and fade out for commercials, but timed to their own needs, so maybe a fade out was located halfway the run. But...in Italy we had commercials in different moments, and the Italian broadcaster had no intention to spend money re-cutting. – motoDrizzt Jan 03 '20 at 19:42
  • So the net result was watching a movie or a cartoon with one or more empty fade out - fade in (meaning, the screen faded out to black for a second, then faded in back to the movie) and then abrupt interruptions when the broadcaster wanted to show its own commercials :-D – motoDrizzt Jan 03 '20 at 19:46
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    @motoDrizzt sometimes you'd even see a cut within a cut, where a short blip from a cut scene appears just before the fade, sometimes with an audible pop where the audio track was spliced. Before the advent of digital editing, cuts were literal - editors would actually cut and glue strips of film together. – barbecue Jan 03 '20 at 21:21
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    @barbecue: yes, I'm that old. Reels, cut with scissors and glued back together. Lol. – motoDrizzt Jan 03 '20 at 21:57