The McDonald’s Summit in Washington, DC had a special guest on Monday: US President Donald Trump spoke highly of the fast food chain. In X, the White House continues its promotional message. Not everyone likes that.
Donald Trump is on an advertising tour. He is the “first former McDonald’s fryer” to be elected US President, he said Monday at the “McDonald’s Impact Summit” at the Westin Hotel in Washington, DC. “I am thrilled to be here with the women and men who make up the heart and soul of one of the greatest, most admired and most successful companies in the history of the world – the unique McDonald’s,” he said passionately. “No matter who you are, everyone can find something they like at McDonald’s. There is always something to suit them.”
“I’m doing this for free,” he explained at the start of his nearly 50-minute speech, just to be safe. Why did he do it? “It was an honor to do it.” That’s why he supports the franchisor – for example with water supply. So far, employees only have half a glass to wash dishes. “I gave them unlimited water,” Trump said. “Biden came back with a fraudulent election and immediately restricted water again. But I came back and immediately lifted the restrictions again. So now you have unlimited water to wash your dishes and wash your hands.”
Trump’s remarks about price developments at fast food restaurants may be especially important to his supporters. In X, he has identified the “affordability crisis” for which his predecessor Joe Biden is responsible. “Prices at McDonald’s are plummeting. Everything is going downhill. Unfortunately, under the previous administration, the prices were so high that people weren’t very happy,” he said at the summit. The public wants prices like those in his first term of office. “We will get them closer to that level, maybe even lower it.”
However, the current trend is moving in the opposite direction. As Britain’s “The Independent” reported on Tuesday, among others, fast food chain prices rose by 3.2 percent year-on-year. The average price of McDonald’s menu items will increase 40 percent between 2019 and 2024, a company report reveals.
This increase was partly caused by US government tariffs. “Happy Meals at McDonald’s are unaffordable for some people due to very high inflation,” said analyst Adam Josephson. McDonald’s CEO Christopher Kempczinski confirmed to investors the decline in low-income customers across the industry.
Promotional video links Trump’s “greatness” and McDonald’s.
On Platform X, the White House account continued promotional messages for the fast food chain. Just published: a picture of the presidential administration headquarters with a large McDonald’s logo. In its promotional video, the account also linked the company’s “greatness” to Donald Trump’s “list of accomplishments” and “the story of the American Dream, where nothing is impossible.”
Sandra Navidi stated her criticism clearly of the post. “I can’t believe my eyes,” wrote the New York-based financial expert and founder of the consulting firm “BeyondGlobal, LLC” on the X platform. “The McDonald’s advertisement published on the official account of the White House. He quoted from his book “The DNA of the USA: What Makes America Tick?” published in 2022. Trump is “the epitome of American culture, namely nihilism, materialism, and narcissism.”
“The fact that his presidency owes so much to an influential reality television show is the ultimate embodiment of that culture,” he continued. “The culture of anything is possible, the will to create one’s own reality, the culture of American success, narcissism and extreme religiosity – all of this makes possible the cult of Donald Trump.”
