LIVE: Donald Trump works at a McDonald’s on MAGA tour of Pennsylvania
TRUMP: “I’ve now worked for 15 minutes more than Kamala” at McDonald’s
Trump works the drive-thru at Pennsylvania McDonald’s
Former President Trump on Sunday stepped behind the counter at a McDonald’s in Pennsylvania, working the drive-thru for a short time after he spent weeks mocking Vice President Harris’s past experience at the fast-food chain.
Trump traded his suit jacket for an apron at a McDonald’s location in Bucks County. He worked the fry cooker and handed an order to customers at the drive-thru. The former president stopped at the fast-food chain ahead of a town hall in Lancaster, Pa., later Sunday. He is also expected to attend the Pittsburgh Steelers game against the New York Jets on Sunday night.
Trump has been fixated for weeks on Harris’s past experience working at McDonald’s in college. The Harris campaign launched an ad in August highlighting the vice president’s upbringing in an effort to appeal to middle-class voters.
The ad noted that Harris worked at McDonald’s while earning her college degree at Howard University. She had referenced the experience during past campaigns as well.
Trump and his allies have repeatedly suggested Harris did not actually work at McDonald’s because it was not listed on her resume. “I’ve now worked for 15 minutes more than Kamala,” Trump quipped Sunday.
The Harris campaign did not respond to a request for comment about Trump’s McDonald’s visit. A campaign spokesperson highlighted an exchange on X in which Trump did not say he would support a minimum wage increase.
“Trump is nothing more than a sock pocket for billionaires when it comes to the policies that matter for working people’s bank accounts,” Joseph Costello posted on X.
Trump’s love of fast food is well known. The former president has been photographed eating McDonald’s on his campaign plane, and in 2019 he served college athletes visiting the White House McDonald’s, Wendy’s and Burger King.
When Did Harris Say She Worked At Mcdonald’s?
Harris appeared to first mention a summer job at the fast-food chain in 2019 during her first presidential campaign. The New York Times reported that, at the time, she joined striking McDonald’s workers on a picket line in Las Vegas in support of a $15 minimum wage. “If we want to talk about those golden arches being a symbol of the best of America, well, the arches are falling short,” Harris reportedly said. Harris has also mentioned working at the company in this year’s general election, including in an interview with MSNBC.
Harris’ campaign told the Times she worked at a franchise on Central Avenue in Alameda, California, in 1983, the summer after she was a freshman at Howard University. They said she worked at a number of stations in the restaurant, including the french-fry machine, but have not provided much other information. Her campaign did not provide the Times with any friends or family members who could vouch for the claim that she worked there, but they did identify one of Harris’ friends from when she was a teenager who said “she recalled Ms. Harris having worked at McDonald’s around that time,” telling the paper Harris’ mother mentioned the summer job.
Where Did Trump’s Allegations Come From?
The allegation that Harris is lying about working at McDonalds started circulating after the conservative outlet The Washington Free Beacon published an article in August pointing out McDonald’s was not on a job application or resume, she submitted after graduating from college—though the job was for a law clerk position to which the McDonald’s experience may not have been applicable.
A conservative news website is getting thoroughly mocked on social media for attempting to gin up some controversy about Vice President Kamala Harris.
The Washington Free Beacon did a deep dive into Harris’ past work at McDonald’s that was breathlessly headlined, “‘I Did Fries’: Kamala Harris Claims She Worked at McDonald’s, but She Never Mentioned It Until She Ran for President. Did She Really Toil Beneath the Golden Arches?”
The Democratic presidential nominee has previously mentioned that she worked at McDonald’s after her freshman year in college to earn extra money.
She discussed the experience in an interview earlier this year with Drew Barrymore, saying, “I did fries, and then I did the [cash register].”
Former President Bill Clinton mentioned Harris’ McDonald’s job during his speech at the Democratic National Convention, joking, “I will be so happy when she actually enters the White House as president, because she will break my record as the president who spent the most time at McDonald’s.”
Harris formerly working at a fast food restaurant may make her relatable to Americans, so apparently, the Beacon wanted to ensure she was on the up-and-up. The article noted that Harris didn’t mention the Mickey D’s gig until a labor rally in June 2019, and it wasn’t mentioned in either of her memoirs.
However, what likely aroused suspicion for the Beacon reporters is that she left her job at Mickey D’s off her October 1987 job application for a law clerk position in the Alameda County district attorney’s office.
The Beacon notes that Harris did list several jobs in a section that asked for every position she had held in the last 10 years, but not McDonald’s. Snopes was also unable to verify Harris’ employment at McDonald’s. HuffPost also reached out to McDonald’s, which didn’t immediately respond.
A Harris campaign official said on background that the vice president worked at McDonald’s during the summer of 1983 in Alameda, California, where she handled register duties and manned the fry and ice cream machines.
But after Free Beacon editor Peter J. Hasson promoted the story on social media, many people expressed that the publication was grasping at straws to make Harris look bad.
The article did recognize Harris may have worked at McDonald’s, but said “the absence of that detail in public records and her campaign’s coyness and refusal to provide any further details raise questions about what is now a foundational narrative.”
WATCH: Trump disparages Harris as he visits a McDonald’s in swing state Pennsylvania. Donald Trump is pulling one of the most iconic American companies — McDonald’s — into the political arena in the final days of his third White House bid.
The former president stopped by one of the fast-food chain’s Pennsylvania franchises during his Sunday swing through the Keystone State, where he swapped his suit jacket for an apron to work as a fry attendant. He later handed customers food through the drive-thru window at the restaurant — which was closed for the event — telling them he had made it himself and that it was all on him.
Manning the fry machine is the same job Vice President Kamala Harris has said she held as a young woman, a biographical detail revealed during her first campaign for president. It has since become a centerpiece of the middle-class origin story she has made key to her pitch to voters as the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee.
Trump, whose deep affection for the Golden Arches and its offerings is well documented, has meanwhile grown fixated on Harris’ employment there. In interviews and on the campaign trail, he regularly accuses Harris – without evidence – of making up the factoid. His visit to the restaurant is his latest attempt to sow doubt about the Democrat’s work history.
“I’m looking for a job,” Trump said to the owner of the McDonald’s in Feasterville-Trevose on Sunday. “And I’ve always wanted to work at McDonald’s, but I never did. I’m running against somebody that said she did, but it turned out to be a totally phony story.”
Harris has largely ignored Trump, as well as calls from his supporters and inquiries from conservative news outlets to provide proof of her time there. Her campaign didn’t respond to a request for comment about Trump’s accusation and his upcoming visit to McDonald’s.
A campaign official told CNN that Harris worked at a McDonald’s in Alameda, California, during the summer of 1983 when she was still a student at Howard University in Washington. She worked the register and manned the fry and ice cream machines, according to the official.
On Drew Barrymore’s talk show earlier this year, Harris told the actor, “I did fries. And then I did the cashier.” And as a presidential candidate in 2019, Harris mentioned her work at the fast-food chain while joining striking McDonald’s workers on the picket line.
Her time there was repeatedly referenced onstage at this summer’s Democratic National Convention as her allies contrasted her upbringing with Trump’s upper-class roots. Former President Bill Clinton joked that Harris would “break my record as the president who has spent the most time at McDonald’s.” Texas Rep. Jasmine Crockett asserted that “one candidate worked at McDonald’s,” while “the other was born with a silver spoon in his mouth.”
“Can you simply picture Donald Trump working at a McDonald’s?” said Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. “He couldn’t run that damn McFlurry machine if it cost him anything.” Donald Trump works the fry station at a Pennsylvania McDonald’s
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Former President Donald Trump used his McDonald’s visit to cast doubt on a part of Vice President Kamala Harris’ life story. © Win McNamee/Getty Images
- Donald Trump visited a McDonald’s in a key Pennsylvania county on Sunday.
- Kamala Harris said she once worked at a McDonald’s, which is a key part of her biography.
- Trump repeatedly claimed, without evidence, Harris did not work at McDonald’s.
Former President Donald Trump has long been known for his love of the Golden Arches.
After landing at the Philadelphia International Airport on Sunday, Trump and his team traveled to a McDonald’s franchise in Feasterville-Trevose, Pennsylvania, where he donned an official employee apron and began handing out orders to customers waiting in the drive-thru lane. He also helped cook the restaurant’s signature fries.
Trump’s visit, however, had little to do with his fondness for the food.
For weeks, Trump has attempted to sow doubt — without providing evidence — that Vice President Kamala Harris ever worked at McDonald’s, which has become a key part of her biography.
Harris said she worked the cash register and made fries during the summer of 1983. At the time, Harris was an undergraduate at Howard University, and her campaign says she worked at a McDonald’s on Central Avenue in Alameda, California, a city in the San Francisco Bay Area.
The former president said in Detroit on Friday that Harris “lied about working at McDonald’s.”
Trump senior advisor Jason Miller also cast doubt on Harris’ McDonald’s employment on Saturday, telling reporters that Trump was going to the restaurant “so that one candidate in this race could have actually worked at McDonald’s.”
Trump needled Harris again on Sunday. While at the drive-thru window, he said he worked at McDonald’s for “15 minutes more than Kamala” and once again accused her of never having worked at the chain.
Trump briefly served as a McDonald’s fry cook during his visit. © Doug Mills-Pool/Getty Images
Harris has firmly pushed back against Trump’s accusation.
“When Trump feels desperate, all he knows how to do is lie,” Harris campaign spokesman Ian Sams told Business Insider. “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.”
The Harris campaign has promoted the vice president’s experience at McDonald’s as a part of a middle-class upbringing that might resonate with millions of Americans — and that separates her from the affluent life led by Trump.
Harris and Trump remain locked in a historically tight race. Trump has sought to promote his handling of the economy, an issue he used to his advantage when President Joe Biden was the presumptive Democratic nominee.
But when Biden exited the race in July, and Harris became the nominee, she quickly went to battle with Trump on the economy and succeeded in eroding his once huge advantage on the issue in key swing states.
McDonald’s, which is headquartered in Chicago, is the world’s largest fast-food chain, with more than 40,000 locations. The chain plans to have 50,000 locations around the globe by the end of 2027, according to its company website.
McDonald’s is also a major employer.
In Pennsylvania alone, the company says its franchises employ over 25,000 people. In a statement provided to Business Insider on Sunday, the owner of the McDonald’s location that Trump visited said he was honored to “showcase” the restaurant chain.
“As a small, independent business owner, it is a fundamental value of my organization that we proudly open our doors to everyone who visits the Feasterville community. That’s why I accepted former President Trump’s request to observe the transformative working experience that 1 in 8 Americans have had: a job at McDonald’s,” Derek Giacomantonio said.
“As a former crew member, I can attest this job is more than burgers and fries, but a meaningful pathway to opportunity.” Trump’s appetite for McDonald’s — and other fast food chains — has been well documented.
After winning the requisite number of GOP delegates needed to secure the party’s 2016 presidential nomination, Trump was photographed eating a McDonald’s Big Mac on his private jet.
And in January 2019, Trump hosted the college championship-winning Clemson University football team at the White House, where he ordered an assortment of fast-food staples for the players from McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s, and Domino’s Pizza.
It’s unclear why Trump has latched on to Harris’ McDonald’s employment or why a visit there was warranted during one of his few remaining weekends before Election Day. But in recent interviews, Trump has suggested that a small detail about his rival’s past shouldn’t be dismissed.
“We would say, well, that’s not a big lie. It’s a huge lie,” Trump said, “because McDonald’s was part of her whole thing.” Trump also visited a McDonald’s early in his presidential campaign, this one in East Palestine, Ohio, after a train carrying hazardous materials derailed there, sparking an environmental and public health crisis.
There, he joked to a woman working the register, “I know this menu better than you do. I probably know it better than anybody here.”
The former president has long stated his affinity for fast food.
During a 2016 CNN town hall, Trump, a self-described “very clean person,” attributed his preference for their offerings to the quality control, saying, “You’re better off going there than someplace you have no idea where the food is coming from.”
“I think the food is good. I think all of those places, Burger King, McDonald’s, I can live with,” he added. “The other night I had Kentucky Fried Chicken. Not the worst thing in the world.”
Trump brought that affection into the White House:
Where he once served Clemson’s national championship football team a smorgasbord of burgers and pizza. His son-in-law Jared Kushner quipped in his autobiography that he knew Trump had turned the corner in his battle with the coronavirus when he requested his favorite McDonald’s order.
“McDonald’s Big Mac, Filet-O-Fish, fries and a vanilla shake,” Kushner recounted.
In an appearance last week on Fox News, Donald Trump Jr. bemoaned that the network in its interview with Harris didn’t ask her which McDonald’s she worked at. He asserted that his father’s familiarity with the chain’s offerings would surpass the Democratic nominee. “I think my father knows the McDonald’s menu much better than Kamala Harris ever did,” Trump Jr. said.
People often ask me which party I identify with, and I often answer that question
| Libertarianism | beliefs and principles |  | |
| A political philosophy that emphasizes individual liberty, minimal government foreign intervention, and the protection of personal freedoms | |||
Libertarians envision a society where individuals are free to pursue their own paths, experiment with new ideas, and engage in commerce without undue interference from the state1.
1. Here are some key beliefs and principles of libertarianism:
- Individual Liberty: Libertarians believe that individuals should have the freedom to make their own choices about their lives, bodies, and property, as long as they do not infringe on the rights of others1
- Minimal Government: The role of government should be limited to protecting individual rights, such as life, liberty, and property2. Libertarians advocate for a “night-watchman” state that provides basic functions like defense, police, and courts, but otherwise minimizes its involvement in people’s lives3.
- Free Markets: Libertarians support free-market capitalism, where voluntary exchanges and competition drive economic growth and innovation1. They believe that government intervention in the economy often leads to inefficiencies and distortions.
- Rule of Law: Libertarians emphasize the importance of the rule of law, where everyone is subject to the same laws, and those laws are applied consistently and fairly2.
- Spontaneous Order: Libertarians believe that order in society can emerge naturally from the voluntary interactions of individuals, rather than being imposed by a central authority2.
- Property Rights: Strong property rights are central to libertarian philosophy, as they are seen as essential for individual autonomy and economic freedom4.
- Non-Aggression Principle: This principle states that individuals should not initiate force or coercion against others. It is a core tenet of libertarianism, emphasizing peaceful coexistence and voluntary cooperation4.
1www.libertarianism.org 2www.cato.org 3en.wikipedia.org 4iep.utm.edu
Libertarianism is a political philosophy that emphasizes individual liberty, minimal government intervention, and the protection of personal freedoms1. Here are some key beliefs and principles of libertarianism:
Does this align with your understanding of libertarianism?
And the views of Randal Howard Paul (born January 7, 1963) is an American politician serving as the junior United States senator from Kentucky since 2011.
A member of the Republican Party, he has described himself as a constitutional conservative and a supporter of the Tea Party movement. His libertarian views have been compared to those of his father, three-time presidential candidate and 12-term U.S. representative from Texas, Ron Paul.[1][2]
Paul attended Baylor University and is a graduate of the Duke University School of Medicine. He was a practicing ophthalmologist in Bowling Green, Kentucky, from 1993 until his election to the U.S. Senate in 2010. He was re-elected to a second term in 2016 and won a third term in 2022.
Paul was a candidate for the Republican nomination in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. While he initially opposed Donald Trump during that year’s Republican primaries, he supported him following his nomination and became one of his top defenders in the Senate during his first impeachment trial,[3] though on key votes he aligned with Trump the third least among Republican senators during the Trump presidency.[4]
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