Watch: Trump works at McDonald's during Pennsylvania visit
Trump workers the fryers at McDonald's
Donald Trump visited a McDonald's in Pennsylvania on Sunday, participating in "Retail Engagement" during his campaign trail as election day gets closer. During the visit you could see the former president cooking French fries as well as handing out bags of food to hungry customers.
FEASTERVILLE-TREVOSE, Pa. - Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump stopped by a McDonald's in Pennsylvania on Sunday in an effort to step up his criticism of Democrat Kamala Harris and dug into his claim, spread without offering evidence, that she never worked at the fast-food chain while in college.
The former president went to a McDonalds in Feasterville-Trevose.
Harris has talked during her campaign about her experiences as a fry cook at McDonalds and Trump planned to try his hand before heading to an evening town hall in Lancaster before attending the Pittsburgh Steelers home game against the New York Jets.
Republican presidential nominee, former U.S. President Donald Trump works the drive-through line as he visits a McDonald's restaurant on October 20, 2024 in Feasterville-Trevose, Pennsylvania. Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)
The McDonald's owner, Derek Giacomantonio said, "It is a fundamental value of my organization that we proudly open our doors to everyone who visits the Feasterville community."
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He said in a statement that was why he accepted Trump's request "to observe the transformative working experience that 1 in 8 Americans have had: a job at McDonald’s."
As Trump put it to reporters when he got off his plane: "I’m going for a job right now at McDonald’s," before adding, "I really wanted to do this all my life."
Trump has fixated in recent weeks on the summer job Harris said she held in college, working the cash register and making fries at McDonald's while attending Howard University in Washington. Trump says the vice president never worked there, the latest example of his longtime strategy to seize on conspiracy theories and question the credentials of his political opponents.
Trump repeated the claim Friday night at a campaign rally in Detroit, saying Harris "lied about working at McDonald's."
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"That’s like not a big thing, but can I be honest with you, it’s terrible," he said.
Police closed the busy streets around the McDonald’s he was visiting and cordoned off the restaurant as a crowd a couple blocks long gathered, sometimes 10- to 15-deep, across the street straining to catch a glimpse of Trump. Horns honked and music blared as Trump supporters waved flags, held signs and took pictures.
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Harris, who was a California prosecutor before becoming a senator and vice president, raises her McDonald's experience as a way to show she understands working-class struggles.
"When Trump feels desperate, all he knows how to do is lie," Harris campaign spokesman Ian Sams said Sunday. "He can’t understand what it’s like to have a summer job because he was handed millions on a silver platter, only to blow it."
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In an interview last month on MSNBC, the vice president pushed back on Trump’s claims, saying she did work at the fast-food chain four decades ago when she was in college.
"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," she said. "I worked there as a student."
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Harris also said: "I think part of the difference between me and my opponent includes our perspective on the needs of the American people and what our responsibility, then, is to meet those needs."
Trump’s senior campaign adviser Jason Miller told reporters on Saturday that Trump would be making the stop "so that one candidate in this race can actually have worked at McDonald's."
"Since Kamala Harris has not, President Trump by the end of tomorrow will have worked at McDonald's. He’ll have done fries more than Kamala Harris ever has," Miller said. "I think it shows he connects with hard-working Americans."
Harris' campaign did not immediately have a comment on Trump’s McDonald's plan.
Representatives for McDonald's did not respond to a message about whether the company had employment records for one of its restaurants 40 years ago.