Donald Trump works the fry station at a Pennsylvania McDonald's
FEASTERVILLE-TREVOSE, Pa. (AP) — Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump manned the fry station at a McDonalds in Pennsylvania on Sunday before staging an impromptu news conference, answering questions from reporters through the drive-thru window.
After an employee showed Trump how to dunk baskets of fries in the oil, the former president took his turn and even helped fill some takeout bags after a bit.
“It requires great expertise, actually, to do it right and to do it fast,” Trump said with a grin.
The visit came as he stepped up his criticism of Democrat Kamala Harris and dug into his claim — spread without offering evidence — that she never worked at the fast-food chain while in college — an experience she has cited during her campaign.
“I do appreciate it a little more. You say, ‘Give me french fries.’ I’ll never forget this experience.” Trump said.
In the exchange with reporters, he was asked about whether he would respect the results of the Nov. 5 election, among other topics. Trump, who still refuses to accept that he lost the 2020 election to Democrat Joe Biden, has said he wants a victory this year to be so overwhelming that the results are “too big to rig.”
Trump visited a McDonalds in Feasterville-Trevose, which is part of Bucks County, a swing area northeast of Philadelphia. Trump is a longtime aficionado, partial to Big Macs and Filet-o-Fish sandwiches; his staff often picks up McDonald’s and serves it on his plane.
Later Sunday, Trump is attending an evening town hall in Lancaster before catching the Pittsburgh Steelers home game against the New York Jets.
The McDonald's owner, Derek Giacomantonio said, “It is a fundamental value of my organization that we proudly open our doors to everyone who visits the Feasterville community.”
He said in a statement that was why he accepted Trump's request “to observe the transformative working experience that 1 in 8 Americans have had: a job at McDonald’s.”
As Trump put it reporters when he got off his plane: “I really wanted to do this all my life.”
Trump has fixated in recent weeks on the summer job Harris said she held in college, working the cash register and making fries at McDonald's while attending Howard University in Washington. Trump says the vice president has “lied about working” there, but not offered evidence for saying that.
It's latest example of his longtime strategy to seize on conspiracy theories and question the credentials of his political opponents.
Police closed the busy streets around the McDonald’s during Trump's visit. Authorities cordoned off the restaurant as a crowd a couple blocks long gathered, sometimes 10- to 15-deep, across the street straining to catch a glimpse of Trump. Horns honked and music blared as Trump supporters waved flags, held signs and took pictures.
Harris, who was a California prosecutor before becoming a senator and vice president, raises her McDonald's experience as a way to show she understands working-class struggles.
“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 blow it."
In an interview last month on MSNBC, the vice president pushed back on Trump’s claims, saying she did work at the 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 who work 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 includes our perspective on the needs of the American people and what our responsibility, then, is to meet those needs.”
Trump’s senior campaign adviser Jason Miller told reporters Saturday that Trump's stop would show he "connects with hard-working Americans.”
Harris' campaign did not immediately have a comment on Trump’s McDonald's visit.
Representatives for McDonald's did not respond to a message about whether the company had employment records for one of its restaurants 40 years ago.