“This is not a normal situation,” former President Donald Trump accurately proclaimed as he stood apron-clad beside a McDonald’s drive-thru window in Bucks County, Pennsylvania.
The 45th President of the United States made the appearance in the Keystone State on Sunday and not necessarily to learn the ins-and-outs of the French fry making process and greet supporters, some of whom were served by a smiling Trump, but to contrast himself with his Democratic opponent who he claims — entirely without evidence — invented a decades-ago brief stint at one of the international fast food giant’s many stores.
“I’ve now worked for 15 minutes more than Kamala,” Trump said, mispronouncing the Vice President’s name.
“She never worked here,” the Republican nominee said.
Harris has often spoken of her time working at a D.C.-area McDonald’s while she was studying at Howard University. Trump, almost as frequently and again today, has suggested she is making up the past summer job but offered nothing to support the claim.
“She said what a tough job it was, only to find out, much to everyone’s chagrin, that she never worked there,” Trump proclaimed via his Truth Social media account just before his “shift” began.
Trump’s “work” at the closed McDonald’s included at least one pass at moving fries from the fryer to the warmer, adding salt, and then filling a few fry containers. The former President later took to the drive-thru, where he handed supporters bags of food.
Trump, whose decades-old love of the company’s food is well documented, apparently learned a few things during his brief and entirely unofficial tenure as a McDonald’s employee.
Trump discovered, for example, that the French fries are not shoved into the carton by hand, a fact he revealed he’d realized only after preparing a few orders himself. He noted that the job was difficult, and that the employees needed to be skilled to succeed at their craft.
“It requires great expertise, actually, to do it right and to do it fast,” Trump said.
The former president said the experience was one he’d long hoped to have, and it seemed to be one he enjoyed.
“This is fun, I could do this all day. I wouldn’t mind this job. I like this job. I think I might come back and do it again,” he said.
According to Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign, Trump’s brief and controlled impersonation of a wage worker was an act of desperation.
“When Trump feels desperate, all he knows how to do is lie. He 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,” Harris-Walz spokesman Ian Sams said.
The owner of the McDonald’s franchise, Derek Giacomantonio, said in a statement that the event was held to allow the former President to “observe the transformative working experience that 1 in 8 Americans have had: a job at McDonald’s.”
“It is a fundamental value of my organization that we proudly open our doors to everyone who visits the Feasterville community,” he said.
The campaign stop wasn’t just about serving up fast food, Trump also used it as an opportunity to conduct an impromptu and truly surreal press conference from the McDonald’s drive-thru window, in which he made clear, yet again, that he’ll only accept the results of the 2024 election if he thinks that it’s “fair.”
“It’s gotta be a fair election,” the former commander-in-chief said, still wearing the apron he’d had help tying on.
Trump’s appearance outside of Philadelphia was followed with a trip to Lancaster for a town-hall style rally, and a stop in Pittsburgh to catch the Sunday night Steelers – Jets game.
Herald wire services contributed to this reporting.
