Ghosts Can’t Do It: Donald Trump Once Starred in a Supernatural Sex Comedy

Long before he became president, Donald Trump made occasional appearances in movies, including 1990 supernatural sex comedy Ghosts Can’t Do It. Trump is of course now the leader of the free world, and to say his presidency has been divisive would be an understatement. But politics aside, Trump was famous for decades prior to entering the political fray, beginning in the 1980s, when he first became a prominent figure as a New York City real estate tycoon. It’s no secret that Trump enjoys the spotlight, which he’d likely admit, so it’s no surprise that he’s always been ready and willing to step in front of a camera.

Trump’s most famous cameo is probably in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, during which Kevin McAllister stays in the city’s famous Plaza Hotel, owned by Trump at that time. Some other entries into Trump’s movie and TV career include Zoolander, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Saturday Night Live, and even WWE WrestleMania.

While Ghosts Can’t Do It is far from Trump’s most well-known entertainment outing, it may well be the weirdest, and also features him onscreen for a larger amount of time than most of his other movie cameos. Here’s what the future POTUS got up to in a film commonly considered to be awful.

Ghosts Can’t Do It: Donald Trump’s Awkward Cameo Detailed

Released in summer 1990, Ghosts Can’t Do It was the final film to be written and directed by John Derek, who first became famous as an actor in films like The Ten Commandments. Near the end of his Hollywood career, Derek helped launch the career of then-wife Bo Derek, who was directed by her much older husband in several films. In Ghosts Can’t Do It, Bo Derek plays Katie, who’s married to the much older Scott, played by Anthony Quinn, presumably a stand-in for John Derek himself. When Scott dies, he returns as a ghost, but since ghosts aren’t capable of having sex, he concocts a strange plan to have his wife murder a younger man and then possess his body.

While all that’s going on, a subplot in Ghosts Can’t Do It sees Katie try to negotiate a business deal with none other than New York City real estate tycoon Donald Trump, which of course sees relentless flirting take place between Trump and Bo Derek. Judging by his real-life wives, Bo Derek is certainly his type, and at one point Trump was considered quite the ladies man – or at least that was his public image – so these scenes fit the Trump brand. The problem is that Trump is a really, really bad actor. He even won a Razzie for his performance, and as was noted then, the worst Razzie is the one someone gets for playing themselves. Whether one loves Trump or hates him, he’s certainly a charismatic presence, but an actor he isn’t.

About The Author