The McDonald's Stop Was Smart And Here's Why
Trump claimed something without evidence, says the Times, and so did Harris, but Harris is to be believed at face value and Trump is not.
Retail politics is a gift and not every politician has it. Bill Clinton had it. Obama had to to an extent. W had it. Hillary Clinton did not have it. Mitt Romney did not have it. Trump has it in spades. Whether you like him or not, it’s undeniable that he’s good at one-on-one during these bus stop visits and that he performs much better in front of a group than he does to a group through a television lens. The McDonald’s campaign stop was a perfectly managed, perfectly executed, and perfectly timed event.
You had people driving up, some of them maybe first-gen Americans, thanking the former president. One patron bragged about getting seven nuggets in a six-nug meal.
The dude teaching Trump how to season fries looked as though he enjoyed the visit as much as the former president did. For all the talk about working fries at McDonald’s this election cycle, only one candidate deemed it a worthy enough endeavor to show up and try his hand at it. It’s a loser move to get outmaneuvered by an opponent and then complain about every aspect of the maneuver that you could’ve done but didn’t.
Think about it: Harris could have ended this by showing up to the McDonald’s she said she worked at and beaten Trump to the punch. If you believe her work experience claims, she stupidly missed a viral moment for Democrats. She didn’t show up because apparently she never worked there.
Ms. Harris’s campaign said that she was an employee of the McDonald’s on Central Avenue in Alameda, Calif., in 1983 during the summer after her freshman year at Howard University, working the cash register, french-fry station and ice cream machine. It has provided little information beyond that, including how long she worked there. She also mentioned her job at McDonald’s when she ran for president in 2019 …
The campaign did not make any of Ms. Harris’s friends or family members available for interviews about their recollections of her experience there.
But The New York Times interviewed a friend who had known Ms. Harris as a teenager and remained in touch with the family for years afterward. Wanda Kagan, a close friend of Ms. Harris’s when they attended high school together in Montreal, said she recalled Ms. Harris having worked at McDonald’s around that time.
Kinda hard to recreate something that was never created. Oh, her campaign and some random friend maybe recalled that she did or something, ¯\_( ツ)_/¯ .
Trump claimed something without evidence, says the Times, and so did Harris, but Harris is to be believed at face value and Trump is not.
This isn’t just about seasoning fries at McDonald’s. It’s a battle at McDonald’s over the blue collar, middle class voter. Democrats are hemorrhaging voters from this demo but so far have offered nothing in the way of solutions to stop the bleeding.
Trump didn’t just go to any restaurant, he went to the number one heritage fast food icon McDonald’s. He didn’t just go to any McDonald’s, he went to a McDonald’s in Pennslyvania, a battleground state, a state each nominee needs to complete their path to 270, a state where they are virtually tied. He had fun and a new round of memes were born. Harris has only succeeded in poorly creating a drop of that level of viral ability on TikTok. Her exchanges are shared because they are cringeworthy. His are shared because they’re funny.
The media downplays this at its peril. McDonald’s didn’t disavow the visit because why would they walk away from the deluge of free advertising? This race put McDonald’s in the headlines, McDonald’s didn’t do that. The attention only cements the chain as the top burger in America. This was their clever response:
This visit showed a personable, relatable Trump. It telegraphed that this job is important enough to show up. This job is important enough to take seriously. That this, and every job, has dignity.
The line cook patiently watched over the former president’s shoulder while he gently guided him on next steps. Only in America.
I love your writing Dana. You do an excellent job on the show. But, when you write it is a joy to read.
Made me hungry for McDonald's.
One man who was struck by the retail politics of DJT was Tyrus, in the green room at the gutfeld show. He had an opportunity to talk to him about it in his own interview. In my opinion, it's one of the most powerful interviews I've seen with a candidate.
https://youtu.be/nwQil7tcImI?si=lQH9-SLEVOWL-a5o