'Fire that smelly old man': Yelp freezes McDonald's comments amid anti-Trump reviews
Yelp temporarily disabled new reviewers from posting comments until it probes a spike of “unusual reviews” at the Pennsylvania McDonald’s where Donald Trump worked the fry baskets and drive-through window.
The “unusual activity alert” was issued days after the former president held a photo-op at the fast food restaurant in Feasterville, closing down normal operations for hours, and prompting a flood of Yelp reviews which, as NBC News reported, "varied in content, jest and vulgarity, with some criticizing the franchise owner for hosting the Trump campaign."
“Customer service was a joke. Senile old man got bronzer on my fries, didn't wear gloves. Repeated himself several times, something about Ronald McDonald in the showers at the golf club? Idk. 0 stars. Do not recommend,” read one user’s one-star review.
ALSO READ: 'He’s mentally ill:' NY laughs ahead of Trump's Madison Square Garden rally
Another one-star reviewer wrote: “The person who was at the drive through vaguely resembled someone who I saw on the news for being a convicted felon..”
A two-star reviewer wrote: "Fire that smelly old man cursing at the fryer! Employees seemed extremely angry and confused like he didn't even really know where he was. I think I smelled s---. Fries still pretty good."
The fast food restaurant received more than 145 reviews before Yelp issued its “unusual activity alert” and halted commenting Monday, according to NBC News.
A notice on the McDonald’s location’s Yelp page informs users that “this business recently received increased public attention, which often means people come to this page to post their views on the news.”
The message added that the site was working to “investigate whether the content you see here reflects actual consumer experiences rather than the recent events.” Yelp encouraged users who had a “first-hand experience with the business” to check back later to leave a review.