On January 14th, 2019, Donald Trump served fast food to the Clemson Tigers, who were the national college football champions at the time. When you think of the U.S. government’s State Dining Room, you would imagine that they would have the best chefs and food available, not fish sandwiches. However, there was a reason behind this; The longest partial-government shutdown in American history was happening, and funnily enough was because of Trump’s refusal to support a bill not including his 5 billion dollar wall on the Mexican Border. Usually a president is supposed to be the leader of the people, not the pitfall, but hey we all have our petty tantrums sometimes! After this fiasco, everything went back to normal, and the fast food stopped being served in the White House.
However, you can take the man out of the fast food, but you can't take the fast food out of the man. He created a photo-op, and to do so he had the McDonald’s franchise in Feasterville, Pennsylvania, closed for himself and had pre-selected customers beforehand. During this publicity stunt, he cooked two batches of French Fries, though he forgot to drain all of the oil and added too much salt. Funnily enough, he marveled at the fry packaging, which if you ask me is the last thing you would compliment McDonalds about. Furthermore, after he spent 2 minutes making some fries, he said he “like(s) this job” and would “do it again”. I don’t think he understands that each of these fast food workers have to do this over and over EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. Even more blasphemous, he avoided all questions about federal minimum wage… The true definition of a stuck-up celebrity. Take the fame, get a good image and leave everyone else suffering. Not exactly president material.
Anyhow, his pettiness seems to be something of a habit, as NBC news states that this was designed to troll Harris. One of the big appeals about Candidate Harris, who’s shared her experiences as working the fry machine over 40 years ago. This experience has been instrumental to her appeal of the middle class, and Trump continually tries to take this away from her; There are multiple reports of him trying to accuse her of never working, which lets be honest is sort of getting repetitive at this point. False accusations are a staple of his, and I'm not exactly sure this stunt helped a ton for his image and appeal. Pennsylvania is a keystone state, and by doing so he hopes to sow doubt that Kamala never worked at McDonalds, which he hopes will help cause the vote to sway in his favor.
Sources:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwWDCh8O9WE
https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2019/1/15/18183617/trump-clemson-mcdonalds-burger-king-wendys-dominos
https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/20/politics/mcdonalds-donald-trump-pennsylvania/index.html
https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-harris-mcdonalds-fry-cook-economy-election-2024-10
10 comments:
Trump is well known for being brought up with "daddy's money" and this cheap attempt at seeming like one with the people only solidified his upbringing, as Charis said. This is another desperate attempt by Trump to present himself at a similar level as Kamala Harris, who served the community as San Francisco's District Attorney. It's clear how disconnected Trump is from the U.S. middle class as he marvels over his few minutes of working a minimum-wage job, while his first job was at his father's real estate company. This stunt is only drawing further attention to Trump's ignorance related to the state of the working field, especially as he avoided speaking on minimum wage. Again he avoids speaking on actual policy and tries to play into the emotions of voters instead. Luckily, many voters will see right through his antics as their means of living isn't something for Trump to play pretend.
An hour of work that is done not for a living wage- but instead for publicity stunt ironically does the opposite of what he intends: shows how disconnected he is from the very class he is trying to appeal to. Showing up in a pricy white collar shirt to greet customers does not resonate with the voters who clung on to Harris appeals from coming from a middle class family, and who has served lower-income community not with French fries, but with policy changes and promises well outlined in her campaign. Moreover, the locational significance was due to Kamala's prior work experience in the fast-food industry as a university student working to make ends meets; which Trump without any baseline, says is a "lie". Kamala herself, has condemned this senseless behavior, stating to a campaign spokesperson that trump can't "understand what it's like to have a summer job because he was handed millions on a silver platter, only to blow it". Highlighting the disparities between the candidates upbringing, and experiences, indicating the failed publicity stunt was a pledge to make a mockery out of his opponent, rather than create an effective standing with voters in this notorious swing state as time is ticking.
This honestly just sounds silly. There's no authenticity to a move like this, and to be honest, it turns away from a political standpoint and more into a personal standpoint, if that makes sense. "Designed to troll Harris" sounds like a ridiculous point to make until you think about it, and realize that there's really no other reason for him to do this. I can run through a few other options, and every single one of them will be wanting. To make himself seem like a member of the "common folk?" That completely goes against the image he presents himself as. To speak to the working class and talk about wages and worker's rights? Oh, but he avoided all of the questions about wages! Right.
Pulling a stunt like this for a personal grudge just seems petty and small, though at this point, I'm not shocked by it.
In a way, I refuse to believe this is just a failed publicity stunt as you say it is. Considering there is probably a very large team of highly payed people managing Trump's public appearances, it seems impossible that they would actually think this would be a good way to appeal to the lower class. Whether or not it will actually work remains to be seen, but at this point I feel that his strategy is to be as controversial as possible. A huge amount of the blog posts this year have just been Trump doing stupid publicity stunts, and this being his strategy would explain why there seems to be a new story about Trump doing something irrational basically every day.
It could be a personal stunt to "troll" Harris but it also seems to be geared towards a political statement. It's meant to humanize Donald Trump and make him connect with his voter base, lower wage rural farmers and minimum wage workers. By doing so he aims to connect with those of lower income and bring them into their party coalition of Republic. I do agree that it's very disingenuous of him and if he didn't disclose that it was staged that is effectively false advertising and lying to the direct public, which Donald Trump has no shortage of. Overall, I do agree the photo-op is extremely disingenuous and a cheap move from him to appeal to the lower class.
This is ridiculous Instead of showing real leadership, he turned it into a strange publicity stunt that missed the mark. Trying to undermine Kamala Harris by mocking her past job at McDonald’s feels desperate, especially since his own actions show he’s out of touch with everyday workers. It just goes to show how important it is for politicians to be genuine and relatable, which seems hard to find these days. Overall, it’s a reminder that being president is about more than just making a spectacle.
While it can’t be 100% confirmed, Harris most likely did work a summer job at McDonald’s as a college student. And she’d have genuine reasons for doing so, like to earn spending money as she’s stated previously. She didn’t do it for relatability; I’m sure she couldn’t have imagined she’d be running for president of the United States some 40 years later and thus kept this job title in her back pocket, waiting for the opportunity to tell voters about how “she’s just like us”.
Trump attempting to one up her is a sign of weakness; leaders shouldn’t be disingenuous to win votes, they just need to subtly show a real and authentic aspect of themselves that may spark a connection between their status as a presidential candidate (and billionaire if you’re Trump) and regular citizens. The key is not to force it, like staging a one and done photo-op at McDonald’s. And if there’s absolutely nothing that conveys a sense of relatability, then maybe the campaign just has to make do without it. You can’t always put yourself directly into someone else’s shoes, and you definitely can’t force yourself into someone else’s shoes, you just have to show empathy and willingness to understand. But alas, politics are a game, and Trump came to play. If he thinks these theatrics will get him a vote or two more by painting him as a man who understands the working class, even with billions in his bank account and disinterest in raising minimum wage, he’ll do whatever it takes.
Also, a side note, this whole story reminds me of the time the D’Amelio sisters cosplayed as Walmart workers and how they faced immense backlash from even their biggest fans because it was pretty insensitive. After all, they were acting like it was Halloween and the Walmart uniform was just a fun and silly costume instead of the clothes of a person trying to make ends meet.
I am curious to know what Trump's team is trying to gain from this publicity stunt. I understand this is their way of approaching the working class voters and gaining a "relatable" image, but I am not sure if that is being executed well here. Many public figures like to imitate the everyday jobs of the working class like what Trump did here, but many times it is met with backlash from the supposed targeted audience. I think any management team of any public figure (especially a presidential candidate) should take into consideration how public appearances like this is perceived by the audience as somewhat of a mockery and an act of disrespect.
Trump has a notable upbringing as someone from a very wealthy family, and has branded his image from that since. His attempt to appeal to the “middle class” and replicate or mock Kamala’s actions is nothing more than a publicity stunt. This instead, highlights how he is disconnected from reality, and goes to the most stereotypical stunt he can think of, Mcdonalds, in order to appeal to voters. I believe that this stunt only separates the two candidates, as Kamala has actually promised to provide tax credits to middle and lower class families, something that will benefit them.
Trump's fast food stunts are interesting because they both play into and contradict his image. On one side, he is trying to connect with America's fast food culture, but on the other, it comes off as superficial and fails to address issues like minimum wage. Also, his repeated jabs at Harris over her past job experience at McDonalds almost seems to backfire because it only reminds people of her working class background, which actually appeals to many voters. It'll be interesting to see if his cynical approach resonates with Pennsylvania voters or ends up as more of a misguided gimmick.
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