DoorDash PR chief hammered after company accused of staging pro-Trump stunt: 'Crash out'

Julian Crowley, the head of public affairs for the online food delivery service DoorDash, made dozens of social media posts Monday after critics accused the company of staging a pro-Trump stunt with the delivery of McDonald’s food to the White House, a posting spree that MeidasTouch’s co-founder Brett Meiselas described as a “crash out.”

On Monday, President Donald Trump was greeted at the White House by Sharon Simmons, a 58-year-old DoorDash delivery driver who handed off two bags of McDonald’s food to the president. During the encounter, Simmons championed the president’s no-tax-on-tips provision included in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which is set to expire at the end of 2028.

It was soon uncovered, however, that Simmons had advocated on behalf of Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act during a congressional hearing in 2025, leading critics to allege the delivery to have been “staged” to benefit Trump, and other critics to accuse Simmons of being a “MAGA-paid prop.”

No evidence exists that Simmons was paid for carrying out the delivery to the White House. Simmons refuted the claim on Fox News Tuesday, and Crowley defended her by arguing that she genuinely “supports keeping more of what she earns in tips.” However, Crowley also engaged in a few heated exchanges with critics.

“You need to touch grass,” Crowley told one critic.

“Class act,” he sarcastically told another in response to an attack on Simmons’ physical appearance.

And to another social media user, Crowley suggested they were a “malicious person” in response to questions surrounding the legitimacy of other personal details about Simmons.

“The PR guy at DoorDash is having a bit of a crash out,” Meiselas wrote in a social media post on X to his nearly 275,000 followers, along with a collage of screenshots of Crowley’s social media posts defending Simmons and DoorDash’s arranged delivery to the White House.

Another critic who goes by “Sam,” who writes about urban development and planning on their Substack, argued that it was shortsighted of DoorDash to not expect backlash for working in tandem with a president who has grown historically unpopular among Americans.

“It’s kinda hilarious that he thought DoorDash could do a photoshoot with a deeply unpopular president for a stupid policy with a fake employee ‘plant’ and that nobody would notice,” they wrote in a social media post on X to their nearly 60,000 followers.

And Brendan Keefe, the chief investigator for Atlanta News First, questioned why DoorDash felt compelled to use Simmons – who lives in Arkansas – over a local delivery driver.

“They flew her in from Arkansas. By her own account, it was her first time in DC. Put her in a marked DoorDash car with no license plate,” Keefe wrote to his more than 44,000 followers on X. “It was clearly a staged photo op – and an ad for a business – but why not use a real door-dasher from the area?”