Trump works at a fry station at a Pennsylvania McDonald’s

FEASTERVILLE-TREVOSE, Pa. (AP) — Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump manned the fries station of a Pennsylvania McDonald’s on Sunday before holding an impromptu news conference, answering questions through the service window while driving.

As reporters and aides looked on, an employee showed Trump how to dip baskets of fries in oil, salt the fries and spoon them into boxes. Trump, a well-known fast-food fan and notorious germophobe, said he was surprised he didn’t have to touch the fries with his hands.

“It actually takes a lot of expertise to do it right and quickly,” Trump said with a smile, tucking in his suit jacket and wearing an apron over his shirt and tie.

The visit came as he attempted to counter Democratic candidate Kamala Harris’ accounts of her campaign working at a fast food chain while in college, an experience that Trump said — without providing evidence — did not benefit. never took place.

A large crowd lined the street outside the restaurant in Feasterville-Trevose, part of Bucks County, a key voting area north of Philadelphia. Later Sunday, Trump attended an evening town hall in Lancaster before attending the Pittsburgh Steelers’ home game against the New York Jets.

After serving bags of takeout to people in the drive-thru aisle, Trump leaned out the window, still in an apron, to answer questions from media outside. The former president, who consistently spread lies about his 2020 election defeat, said he would respect the results of next month’s vote “if the election is fair.”

He joked about buying a reporter ice cream and when another asked what message he had for Harris on her 60th birthday on Sunday, Trump replied: “I would say, happy birthday, Kamala” , adding: “I think I’ll give her some flowers.” .”

Trump did not directly answer a question about whether he might support raising the minimum wage after seeing McDonald’s workers in action, but said: “These people work hard. They are awesome.

He added: “I just saw something… a process that is beautiful. »

When his aides finally urged him to wrap up so he could hit the road for his next event, Trump offered, “Wasn’t that a weird place to do a press conference?”

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. Trump claims the vice president “lied about his work” there, but has provided no evidence to support this.

“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 has a long history of spreading unfounded claims about his opponents based on their personal histories, 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.

And Trump has continued to promote baseless claims during this campaign. Trump said during his presidential debate with Harris that immigrants settling in Springfield, Ohio, were eating residents’ pets — a claim he suggested in an interview Saturday was still true even though he didn’t was unable to provide any confirmation.

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.

John Waters, of Fairless Hills, had never attended a Trump rally and was hoping to see the former president so close to home after missing other nearby rallies.

“When I got there, with all the cars, it was amazing, I was like, ‘He’s here, he’s coming, he’s definitely coming with all this traffic,'” Waters said.

Trump is particularly fond of McDonald’s Big Macs and Filet-o-Fish sandwiches. He has often explained that he trusts large chains more than small restaurants because they have a big reputation to maintain, and the former president’s staff often picks up McDonald’s and serves it on his plane.

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.

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Associated Press writer Will Weissert in Washington contributed to this report.