Donald J. Trump walked into one of his favorite restaurants Sunday and declared he was “looking for a job.”
Although not the person he photographed during subsequent photo shoots, he is certainly the one. Trump stopped by a McDonald’s in suburban Philadelphia, which was closed to the public during his visit, where he briefly operated a fryer and handed out bags of food to pre-selected drive-thru customers, but the other person It was a play intended to attack and have a negative impact. A billionaire candidate will need a certain amount of trust from working-class voters to win back the White House.
This visit combines his two obsessions. His well-documented love of fast food, especially McDonald’s, and his recent pattern of accusing Vice President Kamala Harris of lying about her summer job at McDonald’s without any evidence.
According to her campaign, Harris worked at a McDonald’s in Alameda, California, during the summer after her freshman year at Howard University in 1983. A friend of Ms. Harris recently backed up that account, telling the New York Times that the vice president’s mother, who died in 2009, told her about the summer job years ago. McDonald’s representatives ignored media requests for information.
But Trump, who is known for wildly speculating about the backgrounds of his political opponents without evidence, reiterated that claim in an address to reporters from a drive-thru window in Feasterville-Trevose, Pennsylvania.
Trump, the son of a wealthy real estate developer, told reporters that it had been his longtime dream to work at the Golden Arches, and he listened intently as employees explained flyer technology.
Mr. Trump, wearing shirt sleeves and an apron, nodded as he was told how to prevent oil burns, how to add salt and how to avoid touching French fries when sliding them into a shiny red container. “I’ve eaten a lot of that,” he joked as he watched.
When it was his turn, Trump proceeded to speak, reciting some of the instructions he had been given. The former president, who said he values the national fast food chain’s standards of consistency, efficiency and cleanliness, seemed reassured by the process. “This is definitely new,” he says approvingly at one point. “Never touch it with human hands,” he said later, admiringly.
Shortly after, he dumped the basket of freshly fried fries into a metal garbage can. Mr. Trump joked to his aides: “Have a drink while the oil is hot.” “See if you can touch that sucker.”
When it came time to bag the order, he asked the woman at the drive-thru what she would do if a customer wanted more salt. “I love salt,” he said, sprinkling salt onto his golden potatoes. And then, after spilling a bit, he paused to nod to superstition and throw something over his shoulder, for a few seconds that probably wouldn’t have been appreciated by efficiency-loving executives if Trump had been any other employee. It was an act.
Trump sidestepped the question of whether he thought the minimum wage should be raised. “Well, here’s what I think: These guys work hard. They’re great. And I just saw something, a process, it’s beautiful,” he said.
The Harris campaign slammed Trump’s visit to McDonald’s. “Today, Donald Trump demonstrated exactly what we will see in his second term: exploiting workers for his own personal gain,” a campaign spokesperson said. Mann, Joseph Costello said. “Trump doesn’t understand what it’s like to work for a living, no matter how many staged photo-ops he does. His entire second-term plan is about himself and his wealthy friends, And give big corporations another big tax cut.”
Franchisee Derek Giacomantonio, who owns eight McDonald’s restaurants in the Philadelphia area, including the one Trump visited, said in a statement that the former president’s visit was an opportunity to shine a spotlight on the franchise business and the jobs it provides. He said that he would welcome it.
The visit to McDonald’s was the start of a day’s schedule of campaign events in Pennsylvania. Trump then attended a town hall in Lancaster, in the central city of Lancaster.
Before a packed crowd at the Lancaster County Convention Center, Trump meandered through gentle questions from five audience members and the event’s moderator, former ESPN anchor Sage Steele. He rambled on campaign points (some of which were unrelated to the questions he was asked), made exaggerated and false claims about crime and immigration, and accused the country of reducing domestic oil and gas production. He revived his pledge to increase the number and attacked Harris’ intelligence agency.
The Harris campaign has recently questioned Trump’s refusal to release detailed medical reports, despite a Wall Street Journal report that said Trump shows “no signs” of mental decline. He pointed out a recent editorial. “I don’t have cognitive function. She may have cognitive problems,” he said.
And when Trump again called for cognitive testing of presidential candidates, a move he had begun to criticize President Biden, the 78-year-old former president interjected. 80. ”
Trump also told reporters packed at the Feasterville drive-thru window that he was heading to Pittsburgh for the Steelers-New York Jets game. The New York native, who lives in the home of the Philadelphia Eagles, declined to say which team he would root for.
