Donald Trump Working at McDonald's

Overview

Donald Trump Working at McDonald's, also known as the Trump McDonald's Photo Op, refers to a 2024 Presidential Campaign photo op of former U.S. President Donald Trump working at a McDonald's location in Feasterville-Trevose, Pennsylvania in late October 2024. Trump McDonald's memes surfaced en masse on social media platforms like Twitter / X, Reddit and TikTok (among others) in the following weeks. Many of the photos and videos of Trump working at McDonald's showed him serving and handing out french fries at the drive-thru. In turn, many of the memes referenced the Just Put the Fries In the Bag catchphrase.

Background

On October 20th, 2024, the X^[1] account @TrumpWarRoom tweeted a recording of a local Pennsylvania news report showing former U.S. President Donald Trump at a McDonald's in Feasterville-Trevose, Pennsylvania. The initial tweet received over 22,000 likes in a day (shown below).

The @TrumpWarRoom X account shared multiple photos and videos of Trump's McDonald's photo op on that day. For instance, the X^[2] account posted a video of Trump serving french fries on October 20th, gaining over 11,000 likes in a day (shown below).

Donald Trump's campaign also shared a video of the photo op to Trump's official TikTok^[7] account @realdonaldtrump, receiving over 21.9 million plays and 2.9 million likes in a day.

Another video from the X^[3] account @TrumpWarRoom showed Trump working in the drive-thru window taken from outside the restaurant (shown below).

The X^[4] account @TeamTrump shared multiple photos from the event on October 20th, gaining over 17,000 likes in a day. One photo showed Trump waving from the drive-thru window (shown below).

New York Times^[5][6] photographer Doug Mills (known for taking the Trump Fist Raised Photograph) also took photos of Trump's McDonald's photo op on October 20th, 2024, like one showing the former President handing fries to the viewer (shown below).

According to the New York Times,^[5] the McDonald's location was closed to the public for the photo op.

Online Reactions

On October 20th, 2024, internet users reacted en masse to the photos and videos of Donald Trump's McDonald's photo op. For instance, on the day, X^[8] user @sam_alberti posted a quote retweet that said, "if he loses this is going quadruple platinum on here," concerning the Just Put the Fries In the Bag Bro meme. The QRT received over 247,000 likes in a day (shown below).

Also, on October 20th, X^[9] user @BillKristol tweeted the photo of Trump handing out fries, captioning it, "The Biden economy is so strong businesses are willing to hire convicted felons out on bail," concerning Trump's criticism's of President Joe Biden's economy and Trump's 2023 arrest. The tweet amassed over 153,000 likes in a day (shown below).

Other viral tweets referenced other McDonald's memes. For instance, on October 20th, 2024, X^[10] user HVAC Barclay shared a photo of Trump waving goodbye to the Japanese McDonald's Ad Family, receiving over 40,000 likes in a day (shown below).

Viral memes and reactions were shared elsewhere on social media during the same timeframe. For example, on October 20th, Redditor^[11] His_JeStER posted a meme to /r/Memes that object labeled Trump staring at the frier, "Me not wanting to do anything." In a day, the post received over 17,000 upvotes (shown below).

Memes and viral posts about Trump working at McDonald's also surfaced on TikTok during the same timeframe. For instance, on October 20th, TikToker^[12] @malarkeydystroyer posted a sped-up version of Trump serving french fries, captioned, "bro is actually putting the fries in the bag," receiving over 857,400 plays and 178,400 likes in a day (shown below).

Various Reactions

Templates

Search Interest

External References