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Trump can’t stop obsessing over Harris’s McDonald’s job. So now he’s off to work the fryer at the fast food joint

The former president has been teasing a visit to the Golden Arches for weeks, as Kamala Harris has spoken about her past summer job at the fast food joint

James Liddell
Wednesday 16 October 2024 10:37
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Related: Trump says immigration is bigger issue than economy in US

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Donald Trump is set to make a campaign stop at a Pennsylvania McDonald’s on Sunday.

But instead of chowing down on his 2,400-calorie order of choice – two Big Macs, two Fillet-O-Fish, and a chocolate milkshake – the GOP presidential nominee is expected to “work the fry cooker” in a Philadelphia branch, a source familiar with the matter told CNN on Tuesday.

The former president has been teasing a visit to the Golden Arches for weeks, as Kamala Harris’s past summer job at the fast food joint has been getting under his skin.

Since ascending to the top of the Democratic ticket, the vice president has repeatedly told the story of how she worked a brief stint at a Californian branch as a summer job in her college days in the 1980s.

Trump, however, has repeatedly cast doubts over Harris’s burger-flipping duties and has written off her story as “fake,” claiming the vice president has “never worked” at the fast food chain.

While mocking Harris’s McDonald’s stint during a campaign stop in Pennsylvania last month, the former president said that he would pop behind the counter and man the fryer himself.

“I think I’m going to go to a McDonald’s next week someplace –  it might not be here in your place,” he told the Indiana crowd on 23 September.

Trump (at a campaign rally on September 23 in Indiana, Pennsylvania) has been obsessing over Harris’s summer job
Trump (at a campaign rally on September 23 in Indiana, Pennsylvania) has been obsessing over Harris’s summer job (Getty Images)

“I’m going to go to a McDonald’s and I’m going to work the French fry job for about half an hour – I wanna see how it is.”

On October 10, Trump repeated the claim at a Reno, Nevada, rally, adding: “Do you know what I am doing next week? I am going to a McDonald’s to work!”

The McDonald’s loyalist, whose campaign allegedly spent $31,000 at the fast food chain in the last 18 months, also claimed his minutes-long stint would mean he’d “have worked longer and harder at McDonald’s” than Harris.

Last month, the vice president addressed Trump’s obsession with her student job during a one-on-one interview with MSNBC anchor Stephanie Ruhle.

“I just want to ask you, yes or no,” Ruhle said. “At any point in your life have you served two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions…”

“I have,” Harris replied. “It was not a small job, I did the fries.”

Harris speaks during a campaign rally at Erie Insurance Arena, in Pennsylvania. The vice president worked at the McDonald’s in Alameda, California, during the summer of 1983
Harris speaks during a campaign rally at Erie Insurance Arena, in Pennsylvania. The vice president worked at the McDonald’s in Alameda, California, during the summer of 1983 (AP)

She continued: “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. I worked there as a student.”

The Harris campaign confirmed that the vice president worked at the McDonald’s in Alameda, California, during the summer of 1983 as a student, according to the Daily Beast.

Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung rebuffed: “Why won’t they just provide real documentation and proof? The onus is on them. What does she have to hide?”

The Independent has reached out to the Trump campaign for more information.

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