As is customary to his offensive campaigning style, Donald Trump has taken shots at Kamala Harris, the Vice President, following her assertion about working at McDonald’s. At a rally in Pennsylvania, the former president gravitated towards Harris’s previous remarks where she said that she worked at a McDonald’s in Alameda, California flipping burgers during a summer while still in college.
Trump ridiculed her claims stating, “She has for quite some time now been running with a ‘I worked at McDonald’s’ story. ‘I worked at McDonald’s, over the french fries, it was so hot,’” he stated while read narrating the words from the vice president’s speech. He went on to say that he might also take a fast-food job and added humorously “I think I’m gonna go to a McDonald’s next week someplace… and I’m gonna work the french fry job for about a half an hour, I wanna see how it is.”
A Challenge to Harris’ Working-Class Credentials
Harris has regularly pointed to her experience working at McDonald’s as an example of having had to work her way up from a comfortable middle-class background in Oakland, California. In a social media post dated 31 August, on X (formerly Twitter) she stated, ‘I’m an Oakland California girl. I was raised by a working mother and got a summer job at McDonald’s.’ In the same way, an advertisement published by the Harris campaign on August 10 drew attention to her working-class background by mentioning that she earned her degree while working at the fast-food chain.
This provokes the feeling that it has been designed to appeal to those voters who sympathize with the hardships that the working-class people of America go through, but still, Trump refuses to be swayed. He, as usual, was blunt in his response to Harris’s assertions, posting on Truth Social, ‘Comrade Kamala Harris lied about working at McDonald’s. SHE NEVER WORKED THERE, They think she’s ‘nuts.’’
Trump’s Plan to “Test” the French Fry Job
At the Pennsylvania rally, Trump applied the pressure on Harris’ McDonald’s story even further by announcing that he also plans to ‘work’ in McDonald’s, his own ‘work’ seemingly being just a few minutes of doing the french fries. ‘I’m going to go to a McDonald’s and work the french fry job for about a half an hour,’ he joked adding that there was probably some fabrication in her story. Although tru… Although Trump’s comments were never serious and meant to be taken lightly, they point to one predominant issue throughout his campaign – that of undermining the credibility of his rivals.
For a long time, Trump has used ridicule and hyperbole to point out what he considers weaknesses in the Democratic Party, sharpening his attacks with gags regarding the statements of various leading persons. So, his impressions on Harris appear to be another attack of the sort, only adding some humor to accusations to better serve one’s political goals.
Trump’s Appeal to Everyday Americans
This is certainly not the first occasion on which Trump has sought to adopt the image of a populist candidate. On another occasion that earned Trump much media attention, he was at a supermarket in Kittanning, Pennsylvania Sprankle’s Neighborhood Market, where he was seen with a mother. As she bagged her groceries, the president gave her a 100 dollar bill as he of course jokingly joked: ‘’It’s going to go down a little bit, it just went down a hundred bucks. We’ll make this happen for you at the White House’’.
The media was quick to share that upload, which highlighted Trump’s lame attempt to court ordinary citizens through videos of his small acts of kindness. Additionally, such scenarios fit within Trump’s more extensive approach of projecting himself as the voice for common folk while branding his opponents, Harris, for instance, as out of touch with the struggles of the working class.
The Back-and-Forth Continues
While Trump has remained skeptical of Harris and her working-class narrative, the Vice President’s campaign has remained steadfast about Harris’ story of working at McDonald’s. The criticism is recent and her team has not been able to speak on it but they defend Harris’ very short window of working at the fast-food restaurant as part of her real life experiences.
Both Trump and Harris are in a race to win over the average American, hence such moments can be seen within the broader culture wars taking place on the campaign trail. Each side tries to portray the image of the most relatable and the most reliable choice. With about a year left before the 2024 elections, one is more than certain that there will be such exchanges between candidates vying for completely different versions of America and even different ideas about the American people.
