Trump works at McDonald’s — and MAGA faithful line up to order ‘whatever he gives me’
With two weeks left in the campaign, Donald Trump donned a yellow McDonald’s apron and got to work at his favourite fast food joint.
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Donald Trump is really cooking in the race for president.
Wearing an apron and a red tie, the former president served up some fries and political shade against his rival during a behind-the-counter stint at a McDonald’s in Feasterville-Trevose in Pennsylvania on Sunday.
The campaign stunt drew a monster crowd of fans and bemused onlookers.
McDonald’s has long been one of Mr Trump’s favourite chains, but his visit to the Golden Arches doubled as an effort to re-up his doubts – which are without evidence – over Vice President Kamala Harris’ claims that she worked there in the 1980s.
“I’ll tell you what,” Mr Trump told reporters from the drive-through window.
“It’s a great franchise. It’s a great company … look at the crowd over there. Look at how happy everyone is. They’re happy because they want hope.”
He added: “I’ve now worked for 15 minutes more than Kamala.”
In what his campaign dubbed the “October surp-fries,” McDonald Trump worked the counter and bantered with customers who drove up.
His campaign also released footage of him jubilantly preparing the Happy Meals.
“We got the salt on it. Never touches the human hand. Nice and full,” he said while filling a container of fries — a nod to his germophobic tendencies.
Well over a thousand MAGA-Donald’s faithful lined Street Road in an effort to meet Mr Trump and say “hail to the chef”.
“I’ll just take whatever he gives me,” one man told the New York Post.
“Love him or hate him, I just feel it’s really cool to see this moment in history,” Caitlin Hanlon, 33, a hairdresser from Feasterville who was wearing a pink MAGA hat, told The Post. “It’s a really cool moment, but I obviously support him.”
“Wow, thank you Mr. President,” an excited man told Mr Trump from his SUV after being handed two bags. “You made it possible for ordinary people like us to meet you.”
Mr Trump later quipped “I like this job” and explained that he would be eager to come back and do it again.
He also handed out fries to members of the press stationed outside the drive-through window.
“That’s sort of a bribe. But a fry for a buck is okay,” he joked. “Somebody come up here and take them.”
Ms Harris, 60, has repeatedly maintained that she worked at the fast food joint while studying at university and used the tale to highlight her middle-class roots, seeking to juxtapose it with her billionaire foe.
Her campaign has specified that she worked the cash register, fry station and ice cream machine at a McDonald’s on Central Ave in Alameda, California, in 1983, during the summer between her freshman and sophomore year at Howard University.
“Part of 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,” Ms Harris told MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle last month.
“I worked there as a student.
“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.”
Mr Trump and his allies have harped on how her 1987 resume made no mention of her purported stint at McDonald’s as well as the overall lack of proof that she did.
Her campaign has shot back, accusing him of making a baseless allegation.
Sunday was Ms Harris’ 60th birthday, something that Trump was told by the press during a brief gaggle.
“Happy birthday Kamala! She’s turning 60. I think I’ll get her some flowers. Maybe I’ll get her some fries … I’ll get her a McDonald’s hamburger. Happy birthday Kamala,” he riffed.
“That’s a strange place to do a news conference,” he told his new-found co-workers after wrapping up that presser.
The 45th president has long been a fan of McDonald’s.
Famously during the government shutdown that spilt into 2019, he ordered over 300 burgers in addition to fries and other menu items from McDonald’s to honour the Clemson Tigers for winning the national college football championship that year because the White House chefs were on furlough.
Mr Trump said he personally paid for the meal, which was decked out on silver platters in the State Dining Room.
Throughout his time in the political limelight, Mr Trump has been seen smiling next to various orders from McDonalds that he’s received from aides and occasionally gotten in personal as well.
Last year, for instance, he stopped by a McDonald’s in East Palestine, Ohio, in the aftermath of a toxic chemical spill that unleashed harmful substances into the nearby environment and created a health crisis.
Donald Trump Jr once joked: “I think my father knows the McDonald’s menu much better than Kamala Harris ever did.”
The McDonald’s campaign stop comes amid a pitched battle to win Pennsylvania, which has the largest quantity of Electoral College votes among the seven major battleground states.
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