US Election at McDonald’s: Clumsy Move Even for Trump

To score points against his rival, Kamala Harris, presidential candidate Trump engages in a public relations stunt at McDonald’s while he lies about Harris working there in college.

And now McDonald’s. Donald Trump is clearly leaving no stone unturned in his election campaign. Thus, the real estate mogul climbed down from Trump Tower to the common folk by personally getting behind the deep fryer at the most famous fast-food joint in the world. Just to one-up his rival, Kamala Harris, who says her student job at McDonald’s gives her an edge over Trump that could prove useful in her race for the presidency.

The tasteless show played out at a McDonald’s in Pennsylvania, one of the hotly contested swing states, corresponding exactly to the right-wing populist concept that makes Trump so dangerous. First, he destroys trust in the current system and sows doubt about its credibility by mentioning fake news. In this case, he claimed without any evidence that Harris invented her student job. Then he constructs an alternative reality in which he is the hero: Donald at McDonald’s, posing for beautiful press photos and garnishing the scene by commenting that he “always wanted to work here.” This is Donald, the man of the people, sprinkling salt on the golden Freedom Fries.

Son of a multimillionaire born with a proverbial silver spoon in his mouth, Trump obviously does not have the least ambition to flip burgers at his advanced age. Nor does he care about the employees in the restaurant industry, their working conditions, labor disputes or higher wages. As for the friendly employees at McDonald’s who explained their jobs to Trump, they were lucky that he didn’t fire them on the spot out of sheer habit.

But the voting public knows that such political appearances are staged, and that Trump has something else in mind. What matters most is creating a flawless image, typical Trump. If the little show at the giant french fry empire serves its purpose, then the great Trump show will run again daily for the next four years. Far from appetizing.