Undoubtedly, speculations and debates have been whipped up by the visit of former President Donald Trump to a McDonald’s restaurant in Feasterville-Trevose, Pennsylvania. Trump donned an apron and doled out fries in that event. This event was raising eyebrows over the closing of the restaurant to the public. This article examines some repercussions that this visit would have besides its reaction and political background.
The background behind Trump’s visit
The visit was part of Trump’s campaign in a bid to reach out to voters as key swing states head into the 2024 presidential election. During the speech, he attempted to discredit claims that Vice President Kamala Harris made previously about her working at a McDonald’s while attending Howard University. Trump suggested that Harris never got employment with the fast-food chain-a claim she has repeatedly denied.
Trump, as part of his stunt, interacted with patrons through the drive-thru window, serving fries and making pointed remarks about Harris’s work history as detailed in this article, The viral scene of Donald Trump cooking french fries at a McDonald’s – He went to work at the drive-thru of a restaurante de…It was a performance, all right-presenting himself as a relatable man to working-class voters, a demographic which he and Harris both covet.
The closure of McDonald’s
The McDonald’s where Trump stopped in was closed to the public upon his visit. A sign on the door from the manager of the restaurant, Derek Giacomantonio, explained that it would remain closed until 4 PM on October 20, per Trump’s request to visit. This has caused a great deal of outrage and claims that this was entirely an event for political optics rather than actually meeting with and listening to constituents.
Critics point out that closing down a busy fast-food outlet for hosting any political event disrupts normal operations and causes inconvenience to regular customers. Social media described the visit of Trump as a “PR stunt” and indicated that he organized this simply to attract media coverage because this way he can get favorable coverage instead of really contacting potential voters.
Reactions and speculations
The shutdown, and subsequent actions, have raised a huge debate on the Internet. Most of the commentators questioned whether Trump actually did this out of conviction or whether all this was just a piece of theater aimed at securing attention. Web critics termed the event “fake” and “staged,” saying it lacked sincerity, adding that it was more about creating a spectacle rather than dealing with real issues faced by Americans.
Others, in turn, justified it for security reasons due to Trump’s visit. Being a former president and an active candidate, such events generally face public access limitations for safety reasons.
Kamala Harris and Five Guys: A counter move?
Following Trump’s visit to McDonald’s, the social media speculation was that Vice President Kamala Harris would, in turn, visit Five Guys for some kind of counter-stunt. There was growing speculation about whether she would do her own fast-food stunt as a means of revealing her working-class cred. But Harris characterized Trump’s antics as “unserious,” emphasizing that such stunts are not reflective of today’s serious issues relating to American workers.
Harris has often invoked her college-year job at McDonald’s as a way to push her narrative of relating to the plights of ordinary Americans. And that’s contrasted with Trump here, whose whole performance was contrived; Harris is trying to drive home the point with these voters that authenticity outranks theatre in the minds of these very same citizens.
