McDonald’s has slammed the brakes on using Quarter Pounder beef patties and slivered onions across several states, and Barbra Streisand has a gut-wrenching hunch about the culprit behind this fast food catastrophe.
The CDC has sniffed out the source of the E. coli outbreak, pinning the blame on contaminated onions. But the damage has already been done. McDonald’s shares have taken a nosedive, plummeting nearly 10% shortly after the news exploded on Oct. 22, 2024. By the end of extended trading, the stock had hemorrhaged around 6.5%, and the following morning, shares continued their downward spiral, dropping another 7% in premarket trading.
Let’s not forget the human cost. At least 49 people across 10 states have fallen ill, with 10 hospitalizations and tragically, one death attributed to the outbreak. Colorado and Nebraska have been hit the hardest, but cases have popped up as far west as Oregon and as far east as Wisconsin. If you’ve recently dined at McDonald’s and are experiencing symptoms like severe stomach cramps, diarrhea (often bloody), and vomiting, it’s time to get checked out. There’s obviously nothing funny about the suffering caused by this outbreak. However, the internet being the internet, couldn’t help but notice a peculiar timing.
Just before all hell broke loose, America’s most famous draft-dodging burger flipper decided to play short-order cook in Feasterville, Pennsylvania. This whole circus – supposedly clapping back at Kamala Harris’s legitimate teenage McDonald’s gig – was peak MAGA theater: a bunch of hand-picked “customers” (probably the same extras from his court appearances), a shuttered store, and Trump manhandling innocent French fries while his untamed blonde bird’s nest flapped freely above the food prep area. No hairnet in sight, because when you’re fighting four indictments, or spewing lies every 2 minutes, food safety protocol is pretty low on your to-do list.
No surprise here that users are linking Trump’s unsanitary antics to the E. coli outbreak, with even the EGOT-winning Barbra Streisand chiming in with her take.
Barbra has been a relentless barb in his side as he stumbles through another ill-fated campaign. With crowds vanishing faster than his hairline, Barbra’s razor-sharp jabs are the only thing keeping him in the spotlight. And like a well-timed chorus in one of her Broadway hits, she’s been hitting all the right notes in her criticism of his McDonald’s masquerade.
You see, the real connection between Trump and this bacterial brouhaha isn’t his recent burger-flipping fiasco – it’s his presidency’s gleeful dismantling of food safety guardrails. In July 2017, he reversed a ban on chlorpyrifos, an insecticide linked to ADHD and autism. He also handed industry lobbyists the keys to the castle, letting them dismantle federal health and safety agencies. Sadly, Trump has somehow dodged the bacterial bullet (we may never know for sure unless he turns in his health records) , despite hoovering up Big Macs like a vacuum cleaner. Though his progression from pale to radioactive orange might raise some eyebrows, we’re still waiting for him for his next technicolor transformation – perhaps one that matches his environmental record.
All of this to say, Queen Babs had already blessed us with her ten-foot-minimum Trump advisory. Now she’s reminding us why that ten-foot buffer zone isn’t just about his rogue farts that could rival E. coli for deadliness.
