It wasn’t your typical McDonald’s order, but customers could have asked that question while being served by none other than presidential candidate Donald Trump. On October 20, Trump made an appearance at a McDonald’s, seemingly taking on a shift at the fast-food chain.
Trump was seen handing out orders and cooking food, as shared on his website and TikTok, but some viewers are skeptical about the authenticity of his performance. Following his post, internet users began investigating his claims, after Trump explained that his McDonald’s visit was in response to an allegedly false story about his opponent, Kamala Harris, working there.
For context, Harris’ campaign and a friend who knew her at the time have confirmed to The New York Times that she did, in fact, work at McDonald’s. However, Trump insists the story is fabricated, stating in his video, “I’ve always wanted to work at McDonald’s, I never did. I’m running against somebody that said she did, but it turned out to be a totally phony story.”
During the visit, Trump handed out orders from the drive-thru window and said he was having “a lot of fun,” but some online sleuths claim they’ve uncovered “proof” that Trump’s work at McDonald’s was staged.
A Reddit post showed an image of a sign with the McDonald’s logo, stating that the Feasterville, Pennsylvania, restaurant would be “closed… to accommodate a visit at the request of former President Trump and his campaign.” The post also included a photo of an empty drive-thru lane with a car waiting, along with a caption suggesting, “There was a car rehearsal.”
According to Trump’s website, the former president “cooked food, bagged fries [and] worked the drive-thru,” though ABC News reported the restaurant was closed to the public during his visit. Despite this, reporters at the scene saw Trump being taught how to cook and season McDonald’s fries, and he was spotted serving people in the drive-thru lane.
While Trump also answered media questions during the visit, he remarked toward the end that it was a “strange place to do a news conference.”
After footage of Trump’s shift circulated online, Joseph Costello, a spokesperson for Harris’ campaign, commented that the visit “showed exactly what we would see in a second Trump term: exploiting working people for his own personal gain.” Costello added in a statement, “Trump doesn’t understand what it’s like to work for a living, no matter how many staged photo ops he does, and his entire second term plan is to give himself, his wealthy buddies, and giant corporations another massive tax cut.”
In response to the claims that Trump’s appearance was staged, Taylor Rogers, a spokesperson for the Republican National Committee, doubled down on Trump’s accusations that Harris “lied about ever working at McDonald’s.” Rogers also argued that Harris is “now lying about President Trump’s historic moment making delicious French fries at a McDonald’s in battleground Pennsylvania.”
Rogers added, “The truth: President Trump has now worked at McDonald’s longer than Kamala Harris ever did.”
