For some unknown reason, McDonald’s has become a central component of the 2024 presidential race, with the fast food chain again making political headlines courtesy of a recent visit by Donald Trump.
The Republican candidate — who has made no secret of his affinity for fast food in the past — made a pit-stop during his campaign at McDonald’s restaurant in Pennsylvania, where he was spotted serving fries, filling takeaway bags, and answering questions through a drive-through window.
Trump even donned one of the chain’s famous aprons and prepared Happy Meals (or Unhappy Meals, if you’re not a Trump fan) as part of the appearance, which drew a large crowd of onlookers who probably just wanted a burger before a presidential candidate rocked up and elongated their plans.
The McDonald’s visit appears to serve as a swipe against Trump’s opponent, Kamala Harris, who he has long claimed (without evidence) never worked at the restaurant despite saying she did while she was a student. “It’s a great franchise,” Trump told reporters through a drive-through window, “I’ve now worked for 15 minutes more than Kamala… she never worked here.”
Trump has continuously doubled-down on the substantiated claim that Harris lied about working at the restaurant in recent weeks, with campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung going as far as calling the Democratic nominee “a liar and fraud” who hasn’t given “evidence to back up her claim she worked at McDonald’s because she didn’t actually work there.” Of course, the Trump campaign also hasn’t given evidence to the contrary, so his claim remains baseless.
Reacting to Trump’s restaurant visit on social media, one user cleverly riffed on a popular McDonald’s phrase while calling out the former president’s tenuous relationship with the truth, “would you like some lies with that?.” Elsewhere, another user said Trump’s McDonald’s appearance is evidence that the “Biden economy is so strong,” to the point where businesses “are willing to hire convicted felons” like Trump. Ouch!
In perhaps the most searing (french fry oil) burn of all, famed Trump critics The Lincoln Project said Trump’s visit was “good practice for his next job in the prison kitchen.”
For reasons unbeknownst even to old McDonald himself, Trump’s appearance is just the latest instance of the fast food chain working its way into the presidential race, with the former president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., saying last week that Trump “knows the McDonald’s menu better than Kamala Harris ever did.”
That isn’t something you should necessarily brag about (I personally stash my McDonald’s bag in a hidden location), but Harris herself also commented on the fast food chain last month. “The reason I even talk about having worked at McDonald’s is because there are people who work at McDonald’s in our country who are trying to raise a family,” the vice president told MSNBC.
“I think part of the difference between me and my opponent includes our perspective on the needs of the American people and what our responsibility, then, is to meet those needs.”
For Trump, those needs might be as simple as the more than 300 McDonald’s burgers he ordered to the State Dining Room in 2019. It’s no wonder he hasn’t yet released proper health records, probably because he is fearful that he will someday soon turn into a McDonald’s burger himself.