by Alex Lloyd Gross
It was the worst kept secret on any campaign ever. Donald Trump, the former President Of the United States is going to work at a Feasterville McDonalds. For about 15 minutes, that happened this afternoon. He was supposed to work the fry cooker, but wound up manning the drive-thru as well.
People camped out overnight ,hoping to get aq glimpse of the 45th president. Most did not. They lined up along Street Road and chanted everything from the Eagles cheer to USA to other’s than cannot be printed here. Trump said there were about 10,000 people lined up. Most never even caught a glimpse of him.
As the time got closer to his arrival , Street Road was closed to all traffic. Local police were kept out of the loop as to what the campaign wanted media to do. Originally media was given a specific area to park in, then local police never got that message. People that arrived to watch had to find parking on local streets or in a business parking lot.
Alex Lloyd Gross Photo-Delaware Valley News.com Former President Trump works the drive thru.
In the meantime, the same people driving the same vehicles kept looping around Street Road, blaring train horns and inciting the crowd.
By about 1:30 PM, the motorcade pulled up and Donald Trump reported in for his first (and only) day of work. He was a few minutes late but that could be blamed on traffic. He was shown the fry machine and there were less than 10 vehicles that were going to be served by Trump through the drive-in window,
Anyone that hoped to walk into the restaurant and order fries was mistaken. Those vehicles and the customers were pre screened and they were given their food, presumably packages of fries. Then it happened. Trump appeared at the window and served up the customers, chatting with them for a few until the next vehicle came up.
There was a frenzy of national and local media there to document every second. Trump did this because his opponent, Kamala Harris claimed to have worked at a McDonald’s , yet that appeared nowhere on her resume. Trump said there were discrepancies if she ever worked there, if so now and if so, for how long. The Trump campaign called that a credibility issue.
Once the customers were served, Trump held court with the media at the drive-in window, When asked by Delaware Valley News.com if he was getting paid, his response was “Not enough”, In reality, it is unknown if Trump actually was paid for this and if he will declare this on his taxes, if he is.
Trump praised his crew and said he has a lot of respect for the people that do this work. Yet he refused to answer if he will raise the minimum wage . It sits at $7.25/hr. It is quite possibly that his crewmates are going paid $7.25/hr or close to it. McDonald’s spokespeople refused to answer the question as to what a crew member gets paid and if Trump filled out an application.
Alex Lloyd Gross Photo-Delaware Valley News.com President Trump prepares to give food to a customer.
When informed that today was Kamala Harris’ birthday, he quipped maybe I’ll get her some flowers”, and then joked about getting her some McDonald’s food. Trump seemed interested to visit the Trump Store about 2 miles away on Street Road. He was not familiar with it and said, “If I can clear it with my secret service, I’ll do it”. That visit never materialized.
Trump said that the price of McDonald’s has gone up and he is not happy about it. According to Trump he can get the prices lower if he is president.
McDonald’s issued a statement from the franchise owner Derek Giacomantonio that reads in part,” As a small independent business owner, it is a fundamental value of my organization that we proudly open our doors to everyone who visit’s the Feasterville community. That is why I accepted former President Trump’s request to the transformative working experience that one in eight Americans have had a job at McDonald’s.
Trump issued a statement, prior to his shift that said in part, “On Monday, the New York Times reported without attribution that Harris, who was born in Oakland, Calif., and moved to Montreal with her mother and younger sister when she was 12, “return[ed] to the Bay Area for a summer during college when she worked at a McDonald’s in Alameda, a city next to Oakland.” Harris was attending college at Howard University in Washington, D.C.
Alex Lloyd Gross Photo-Delaware Valley News.com Former President Trump gets interviewed.
If some details of the job have varied, while others are murky, that might be because there is no record of Harris mentioning the McDonald’s job before that labor rally in Las Vegas in June 2019.
The job goes unmentioned in both of her memoirs, published in July 2010 and January 2019″. Trumps campaign also wrote “t is possible that Harris did indeed work at McDonald’s in the early 1980s. But the absence of that detail in public records and her campaign’s coyness and refusal to provide any further details raise questions about what is now a foundational narrative.”
As the impromptu press gaggle was closing down, the subject of food came up and Trump asked the media if he could serve us food. A Trump staffer took several bags of fries to the traveling press and local reporters feasted on other bags of fries., (including this one).
Trump later issued statements that he worked at a shift at McDonald’s for 15 minutes “Which is 15 minutes longer than Kamala Harris did”. He then posted a fundraising appeal asking for $15.00, showing some of the photos from the visit. That $15.00 is more than some McDonald’s workers are making for an hour’s work in some parts of the country.