October 20th 2024.
On Sunday, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is scheduled to make a visit to a McDonald's in Pennsylvania. His plan is to not only visit the fast-food chain, but also work the french fry cooker before heading to an evening town hall in Lancaster and then attending the Pittsburgh Steelers home game against the New York Jets.
In recent weeks, Trump has been fixated on Democrat Kamala Harris' summer job at McDonald's while she was attending Howard University in Washington. Despite Harris stating that she worked at the fast-food chain, Trump has continued to claim, without evidence, that she never actually worked there. This is just one example of Trump's long-standing strategy to capitalize on conspiracy theories and question the qualifications of his political opponents.
Trump even brought up the issue at a recent campaign rally in Detroit, stating that Harris had "lied about working at McDonald's." He went on to say that while it may not seem like a big deal, it is still "terrible." As a result, police closed the streets around a McDonald's in Feasterville-Trevose, Pennsylvania, and the restaurant was cordoned off as a large crowd gathered to catch a glimpse of Trump.
Harris, who was previously a California prosecutor before becoming a senator and vice president, has used her experience working at McDonald's as a way to connect with working-class individuals and demonstrate her understanding of their struggles. Her campaign spokesman Ian Sams responded to Trump's claims by saying, "When Trump feels desperate, all he knows how to do is lie. 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."
In an interview last month, Harris pushed back on Trump's claims and clarified that she did, in fact, work at McDonald's while she was a student. She also highlighted the difference between her and her opponent, stating that she has a better understanding of the needs of the American people and their responsibility to meet those needs.
Despite the evidence, Trump's senior campaign adviser Jason Miller announced that Trump would be making a stop at McDonald's to show that he is the only candidate in the race who has actually worked at the fast-food chain. "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 stated. "I think it shows he connects with hard-working Americans."
Harris' campaign did not immediately respond to Trump's plans to visit McDonald's. Representatives for the fast-food chain also did not respond to inquiries about employment records from 40 years ago.
This is not the first time that Trump has promoted false and baseless claims, the most notable being his repeated claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election. Throughout his campaign, Trump has also targeted his opponents based on their personal history, particularly women and racial minorities.
For example, before he ran for president, Trump was a prominent voice in the "birther" conspiracy that falsely claimed former President Barack Obama was not born in the United States and was therefore ineligible to be president. He also spread baseless claims about Texas Sen. Ted Cruz's father having links to Lee Harvey Oswald, the assassin of President John F. Kennedy, during their competition for the Republican nomination in 2016.
Even this year, while facing his former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley in the Republican primary, Trump shared false claims that her parents were not citizens when she was born, making her ineligible to run for president. In reality, Haley was born in South Carolina to Indian immigrants, automatically making her a native-born citizen and meeting the constitutional requirements for running for president.
Republican strategist Barrett Marson commented on Trump's decision to focus on Harris' job at McDonald's, calling it a "puzzling detour." However, he also noted that Trump is known for "throwing anything on the wall to see if it sticks" and that his focus on this issue is simply "off-topic" and unlikely to sway undecided voters.
Instead, Marson suggested that Trump would be better off focusing on the economy and immigration, rather than getting sidetracked by irrelevant issues. He stated, "I don't think there's an undecided voter out there that will respond or that will make their decision based on whether or not Kamala Harris actually worked at McDonald's in the 1980s."
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