FEASTERVILLE-TREVOSE, Pa. — Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump manned the fries station of a Pennsylvania McDonald’s on Sunday before holding an impromptu news conference, answering questions from reporters through the service window while driving.
After an employee showed Trump how to dip baskets of fries in oil, the former president took his turn and even helped fill a few takeout bags after a while.
“It actually takes a lot of expertise to do it right and quickly,” Trump said with a smile.
The visit comes as he steps up his criticism of Democrat Kamala Harris and digs deeper into her claim – widely spread without providing evidence – that she never worked at a fast food chain while in college – a experience she cited during her campaign.
“I appreciate it a little more. You say, “Give me some fries.” » I will never forget this experience. » Trump said.
During an exchange with journalists, he was asked, among other topics, whether he would respect the results of the November 5 elections. Trump, who still refuses to accept that he lost the 2020 election to Democrat Joe Biden, said he wanted victory this year to be so overwhelming that the results would be “too important to rig.”
Trump visited a McDonalds in Feasterville-Trevose, part of Bucks County, a swing area northeast of Philadelphia. Trump is a longtime aficionado of Big Macs and Filet-o-Fish sandwiches; his staff often picks up McDonald’s and serves it on his plane.
Later Sunday, Trump will attend an evening town hall in Lancaster before attending the Pittsburgh Steelers’ home game against the New York Jets.
McDonald’s owner Derek Giacomantonio said, “It is a core value of my organization that we proudly open our doors to all who visit the Feasterville community. »
He said in a statement that was why he agreed to Trump’s request “to observe the transformative work experience that one in eight Americans have had: a job at McDonald’s.”
As Trump told reporters as he got off his plane: “I’ve really wanted to do this my whole life. »
Trump has focused in recent weeks on the summer job Harris said he took in college, working the cash register and making fries at McDonald’s while studying at Howard University in Washington. Trump claims the vice president “lied about his work” there, but has provided no proof of that.
It’s the latest example of his long-standing strategy of seizing on conspiracy theories and questioning the credentials of his political opponents.
Police closed busy streets around the McDonald’s during Trump’s visit. Authorities cordoned off the restaurant as a crowd gathered for a few blocks, sometimes numbering 10 to 15 people, across the street, strained to get a glimpse of Trump. Horns honked and music blared as Trump supporters waved flags, held signs and took photos.
Harris, who served as a California prosecutor before becoming a senator and vice president, discusses her experience at McDonald’s as a way to show she understands the struggles of the working class.
“When Trump feels desperate, all he knows how to do is lie,” Harris campaign spokesman Ian Sams said Sunday. “He can’t understand what it’s like to have a summer job because he was handed millions on a silver platter, only to have it blow.”
In an interview last month on MSNBC, the vice president rejected Trump’s claims, saying she had worked at a fast food chain four decades ago when she was in college.
“Part of the reason I even talk about having worked at McDonald’s is because there are people working at McDonald’s in our country who are trying to raise a family,” she said. “I worked there as a student.”
Harris also said, “I think part of the difference between me and my opponent is our views on the needs of the American people and our responsibility to meet those needs. »
Trump’s top campaign adviser, Jason Miller, told reporters Saturday that Trump’s stop would show that he is “connecting with hard-working Americans.”
McDonald’s representatives did not respond to a message about whether the company had any history of employment at one of its restaurants 40 years ago.
Trump promoted false and baseless claims throughout his campaign.
This is far from the first time Trump has promoted baseless claims. Most notably, he falsely claims he lost to Biden due to voter fraud. Trump said during his presidential debate with Harris that immigrants settling in Springfield, Ohio, were eating residents’ pets.
Trump has long attacked his opponents based on their personal history, particularly women and racial minorities.
Before running for president, Trump was a leading voice in the “Birthers” conspiracy that baselessly claimed that President Barack Obama was from Africa, was not a U.S. citizen, and therefore was not not eligible for the presidency. Trump used it to raise his own political profile, demanding to see Obama’s birth certificate and five years after Obama did so, Trump finally admitted that Obama was born in the United States.
During his first presidential campaign, Trump repeated tabloid claims that the Cuban-born father of Texas Sen. Ted Cruz had ties to President John F. Kennedy’s assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald. Cruz and Trump were competing for the party’s nomination in 2016.
In January of this year, when Trump was facing Nikki Haley, his former UN ambassador, in the Republican primary, he shared a post on his social media network containing false claims that Haley’s parents were not citizens at birth, thus making her ineligible. be president.
Haley is the daughter of Indian immigrants born in South Carolina, which automatically makes her a native-born citizen and meets the constitutional requirements to run for president.
Barrett Marson, a Republican strategist in Arizona, said using a campaign visit to focus on claims about McDonald’s four decades ago was a “confusing detour” but that Trump “doesn’t hesitate to throw away anything it’s on the wall to see if it sticks.”
“When Donald Trump isn’t talking about the economy and illegal immigration, he’s going off topic on the things people care about,” Marson said.
Marson suggested that Trump would be better off talking about the economy and immigration, not something he called “off-topic.”
“I don’t think there’s an undecided voter who will answer or make their decision based on whether or not Kamala Harris actually worked at McDonald’s in the 1980s,” Marson said.
