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“Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump manned the fry station at a McDonald’s in Pennsylvania on Sunday before staging an impromptu news conference, answering questions through the drive-thru window…
“As reporters and aides watched, an employee showed Trump how to dunk baskets of fries in oil, salt the fries and put them into boxes using a scoop. Trump, a well-known fan of fast food and a notorious germophobe, expressed amazement that he didn’t have to touch the fries with his hands…
“The visit came as he’s tried to counter Democratic nominee Kamala Harris’ accounts on the campaign of working at the fast-food chain while in college, an experience that Trump has claimed — without offering evidence — never happened.” AP News
The left argues that despite this visit, Trump does not really care about the working class.
“[Trump has] thrust himself into the role of savior of forgotten American workers—yet he has continued to govern like a rapacious mogul, delivering tax cuts for the wealthy, cracking down on workers’ collective bargaining protections, and reneging on his pledges to rescue American manufacturing plants…
“In his recent appearance before the Economic Club of Chicago, he ignorantly derided the demanding jobs of line workers in auto plants, and at a rally in Erie, Pennsylvania., he bragged about withholding overtime pay from contract workers he’d hired…
“The [McDonald’s] episode was a Potemkin spectacle—the franchise was actually closed to customers for the photo-op, and the customers Trump pretended to serve were MAGA supporters pre-vetted by the Secret Service; those faux customers even did trial runs through the restaurant’s drive-thru lane in advance of Trump’s star turn.”
Chris Lehmann, The Nation
“While Trump has wrapped all three of his presidential campaigns in populist rhetoric, his administration largely sided with corporate management in its battles against workers and unions over pay, benefits and labor conditions. Much of Trump's policies, and actions to reverse those of previous administrations, went through the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), which Trump stacked with appointees who had previously served in white-shoe law firms that consistently represented large corporations…
“The NLRB continued to pass rules [throughout Trump’s term] that further consolidated McDonald's Corp. and other large corporations' power, including an early 2020 directive to shield parent companies from lawsuits by franchise employees. From the White House, Trump consistently opposed legislation that would meet the demands of union workers, such as raising the minimum wage, and slashed existing benefits for struggling Americans.”
Nicholas Liu, Salon
“When Ms. Harris talks about McDonald’s, working-class voters may see a future president who knows the fatigue of low-wage, service sector jobs. According to McDonald’s most recent diversity snapshot, 20 percent of its restaurant staff is Black and 35 percent of their co-workers are Hispanic, two groups that can deliver a victory for Ms. Harris…
“When Mr. Trump shares what is reportedly his favorite order of two Filet-o-Fish sandwiches, two Big Macs and a shake, his fans may applaud a rich guy who doesn’t turn his nose up at fast food. Much of Mr. Trump’s base may not relate to working at McDonald’s as much as dreaming of gaining Mr. Trump’s wealth and owning one.”
Marcia Chatelain, New York Times
The right praises Trump’s visit, arguing that it helped him connect with voters.
The right praises Trump’s visit, arguing that it helped him connect with voters.
“There’s Trump salting the fries. There’s Trump manning the drive-thru window. ‘This is compliments of Trump,’ he says handing over the bags of junk food. ‘Look at this guy, I’m not going to mess with him,’ he says, charmingly, before adding: ‘Don’t eat too much.’ You must really hate Trump not to find these moments amusing. ‘I’m having a lot of fun,’ Trump says. And he so clearly is…
“Harris’s fans – or Trump’s critics – are now busy denouncing the McDonald’s stunt as a bogus photo-up. But bogusness is the point: thanks to technology, our lives are all mediatised. We all experience life, politics and culture through algorithms, which aren’t designed to serve up intellectual sustenance. The internet gives the people what we want: and what we want, it turns out, is Donald Trump in an apron dishing out Big Macs in Lower Southampton, Pennsylvania.”
Freddy Gray, Spectator UK
“Kamala Harris and the Democrats have become the party of higher education and corporate boardrooms and Big Tech. Democrats don’t eat Big Macs. They eat kale… By trolling Harris at McDonald’s, Trump told the country that even with his gold cuff links and thousand-dollar haircut, he connects with regular Americans better than modern Democrats. He also merged world famous brands that, while filled with empty calories, drench themselves in gold — McDonald’s and Trump…
“The whole thing was deliciously insane, bizarre in the way that America does bizarre. It’s what the Democrats have never understood about Trump or the country. America is weird. And if you don’t understand what Trump did at McDonald’s and that it was a breakthrough in this campaign, then you don’t understand Trump or the country.”
Phil Boas, Arizona Republic
Some note, “[Trump] missed a bigger opportunity to highlight how Kamala Harris’s agenda endangers [fast food] jobs and franchise restaurants… A handful of states have increased their minimum wage to $15 or more. A recent Beacon Economics study found that median unemployment was 3.1% in the 20 states that mimic the federal minimum wage, versus 4.2% in the 15 states with minimums between $14 and $17…
“Higher minimum wages price teens out of the job market since they usually have the least experience and skills. Look no further than Ms. Harris’s home state of California, where Democrats raised the minimum to $16 an hour from $12 in 2020. Over the past two years, unemployment among those ages 16 to 19 has soared to 19.2% from 10.8%, versus 11.9% from 10.5% nationwide… Harris talks up her grants and loans for small businesses, but the local McDonald’s and other franchisees are on her target list. That won’t help low-income workers.”
Editorial Board, Wall Street Journal
