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Trump Dons Apron, Works Drive-thru, Fry Station at Bucks County, PA McDonald’s, Warming Hearts and Exploding Heads

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By Lambert Strether of Corrente.

Here is what Trump said he would do:

“For a long time, [Harris has] been talking about her experience at McDonald’s. ‘I worked at McDonald’s, over the french fries, it was so hot,'” he said.

“I think I’m gonna go to a McDonald’s next week some place, it might not be here in your place—I’m gonna go to a McDonald’s and I’m gonna work the french fry job for about a half an hour, I wanna see how it is.”

And that is exactly what Trump did, as we shall see. To set the political context, the McDonald’s was located in Feasterville, PA, in Bucks County, one of the suburbs surrounding Philadelphia (“Philly”). From the Philadelphia Inquirer, “Bucks County, the last purple part of Philly’s suburbs, could swing the race for Trump or Harris — and they know it“:

Bucks County is known for vote splitting and politically moderate voters.

Trump lost the county in 2016 and 2020 but by narrower margins than the rest of the Philly region. Over the summer, Republicans gained the advantage in voter registration. But Democrats have had success in recent local elections….

The margins in Bucks County could play a key role in determining who wins Pennsylvania’s electoral votes and the White House in November.

So, no pressure! In this post, I will first do a very aggregation of mainstream coverage, and then move almost entirely to tweets, not because Twitter is closer to “the people,” whoever they are, but because the hot takes there, however motivated, are generally fresher and sharper (I collected about 70 tweets, which was far too many, but I’ve curated that count down significantly). After giving the mainstream coverage the attention it deserves, I will frame the event by presenting two McDonald’s documents, and discussing the logistics of this campaign event. Then I will discuss whether the event was staged, fake or a stunt, and compare the reactions of Liberal Democrats and the McDonald’s workers. Finally, I will look at Trump’s ethos, and conclude.

Mainstream Coverage

From AP, “Trump works the fry station and holds a drive-thru news conference at a Pennsylvania McDonald’s”

FEASTERVILLE-TREVOSE, Pa. (AP) — Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump manned the fry station at a McDonald’s in Pennsylvania on Sunday before staging an impromptu news conference, answering questions through the drive-thru window.

As reporters and aides watched, an employee showed Trump how to dunk baskets of fries in oil, salt the fries and put them into boxes using a scoop. Trump, a well-known fan of fast food and a notorious germophobe, expressed amazement that he didn’t have to touch the fries with his hands.

“It requires great expertise, actually, to do it right and to do it fast,” Trump said with a grin, putting away his suit jacket and wearing an apron over his shirt and tie.

From CBS, “Trump works drive-thru at Pennsylvania McDonald’s before town hall in Lancaster“:

Trump stopped at the McDonald’s in Feasterville, Bucks County, on Sunday, where he donned an apron and worked the drive-thru. The former president handed out food to pre-selected supporters in five cars.

From the Daily Mail, “Trump serves McDonald’s customers and says ‘I’ve now worked for 15 minutes more than Kamala’”

Trump then proceeded to dip wire baskets of potatoes in sizzling oil before salting them and handing them out to customers through the restaurant’s drive-through window. Thousands of people lined the street opposite the restaurant to watch.

Video captured from within the kitchen on Sunday showed Trump, 78, passing out orders to a group of grateful prearranged ‘customers’ – Trump supporters understood to have been pre-selected by his camp – who were were to see the ex-president serving their food and told him why they’ll be supporting him in the election next month.

One man, apparently accompanied by his wife, told Trump, 78, ‘you are the type of person we want to be the president’, after thanking him for ‘everything you’re doing.’ His passenger added: ‘Thank you for taking the bullet for us.’

Before looking further into the event, let’s establish the corporate and franchise context.

McDonald’s Documents

Here is a document from McDonald’s corporate:

Corporate is saying, in the nicest possible way (“don’t have records for all positions dating back to the ’80s”) that they have no record of Kamala ever having worked there. (The press, in other words, has it exactly backwards: They say that Trump claims “without evidence” that Kamala didn’t work at McDonald’s. But Kamala made the claim, so it’s up to her to provide the evidence. So far, we have to take her claim on faith.)

Here is a document from the franchisee, taped to the door of the restaurant:

So, yes, the store was closed. To consider whether the event was staged, or fake, let’s consider campaign logisitics.

Logistics of the Campaign Event

We’re looking at a campaign event here. A crowd shot:

And another:

That’s a lot of people! Any one of whom might be the next Crooks or Rouf. As Zaid Jilani puts it, politely:

As I put it, less politely, ranting: It was a campaign event! Are we little children of six? Of course it was staged. All campaign events are staged. The essential point is not — as neoliberals would have it — the fact of a transaction, but the reality that Trump did the work (“dip[ped] wire baskets of potatoes in sizzling oil before salting them and handing them out”) End rant.

Staged, Fake, or a Stunt

Hence, liberal Democrat-aligned headlines like Trump serves McDonald’s fries to supporters in stage-managed campaign stop (WaPo), The difference between work and Trump’s staged McDonald’s theatrics (MSNBC), or These 25 BRUTAL reactions to Trump fake working at a CLOSED McDonald’s have us HOWLING (Pride) miss the point entirely: First, all campaign events are staged; and it’s especially important to stage campaign events properly, so Trump doesn’t get successfully assassinatedl, ‘third time is the charm”-style.

The Feasterville McDonald’s campaign event is best characterized as a stunt, which mainstream conservativers recognize, amazingly enough. Piers Morgan:

J-Pod:

Political stunts go back at least as far as Athens in the Fifth Century BC, and even liberal goodthinker Charlie Pierce understands that’s what was going on:

Semi-seriously, I’m not sure why everybody is making a big deal about this McDonald’s stunt. It was fake? Color me not astonished. It’s an example of what a veteran pol once told me about campaigning: Sooner or later, no matter how smart you are, or how brilliant your strategy is, you have to pet the pig. This was petting the pig, not dissimilar to flipping pancakes in New Hampshire or wolfing down corn dogs at the Iowa State Fair.

Checking my trusty OED, the essential characteristic of a stunt is that it involves an element of risk:

1. An act notable or impressive on account of the skill, strength, daring, etc., required to perform it, an exciting or dangerous feat or trick, an exploit; a theatrical turn; a daring aerobatic manoeuvre; a prescribed item or event in an athletic competition or display. Also, something intended to gain an effect or win an advantage; spec.

Bush’s “Mission Accomplished” stunt — he actually landed a plane on the carrier Abraham Lincoln — is an example of a stunt gone terribly wrong…

.;.. since as it turned out, the Iraq mission wasn’t accomplished at all.

By contrast, Bill Clinton playing the saxophone on the Arsenio Hall show was a brilliant success, and solidified his popularity with young and “urban” voters:

I can imagine Susie Wiles stroking out when Trump proposed this to her: Her candidate heating up a deep fat fryer. What could go wrong, except everything? But that’s what a stunt is all about: Some risk. The pig turns away from the kiss, the pancake sticks to the ceiling, the candidate chokes on a bone at the fish fry. The fryolator erupts in a burst of hot oil, sending the candidate a stay in the hospital in the final two weelks of a campaign. Risk is the nature of stunts!

Reactions

First, I’ll look at some reactions that can, I think, be classified as pecksniffery, and self-defeating at that:

And:

And:

I like Sean Fain, but no, Kamala hasn’t “worn the uniform,” at least on the evidence we have.

The reactions of the workers in the store are quite different:

And:

In these, and in all the other images I have seen, the McDonald’s workers are reacting like this is a fun, silly, goofy event — as indeed it is!

Trump’s Ethos

I wrote:

Trump doesn’t even have to be good. All he has to do is actually feel the heat of the grill and show respect for workers by entering their world (and not with performative empathy and bullet points on the Twitter).

Well, they didn’t put Trump on the grill; just the fryer (hard to learn the grill in half an hour I suppose). But “show respect for workers by entering their world”? I think Trump did that:

(Trump wearing his tie under his apron is very different from Walz’s sad cosplay of a hunting outfit.)

The event is, of course, already generating countless memes:

Although this one may be a little over the top:

(I say it is a stunt, but since a stunt involves real risk, the gesture is meaningful in a way that merely staged or fake events are not. Imagine if Bill Clinton had butchered his saxphone solo!)

As a connoisseur of campaign technique, I applaud the event:

And I find myself in the uncomfortable position of agreeing with a Red State/Daily Caller account:

But when you’re right, you’re right.

Conclusion

At this point, I should remind readers that I have said, many times, that his election is a Sophie’s Choice. I don’t love either candidate, and I certainly don’t love Trump. After all:

Not only that but the franchisee in Feasterville has been screwing his workers:

But it doesn’t matter what Bernie thinks, because the Democrat Party neutered him (and empowered the franchisee, too, if it comes to that).

However, purely from the standpoint of technique, this campaign event is brilliant worthy of study. First, consider what is called “earned media”:

Correct, leaving aside the editorializing about Kamala.

Second, everything about the messaging is good. Not only did Trump “work the french fry job,” he put himself in the workers’ hands: They tied his apron, for example (the woman smiling at what she was doing, in on the joke). Any one of these human interactions could have gone very wrong (again, a stunt means risk).

Third, everything about the media is good. There’s a ton of video and photographs out there already, TikToking away, having a corrosive effect on liberal Democrat pecksniffery.

Fourth, the event should convincingly dispose of a talking point that the Democrats have been hammering hard on: That Trump, just like Biden, has cognitive issues, and they’re worsening. Clearly, he does not (imagine Biden trying the work the fryer).

Fifth, the event precludes Kamala from doing anything similar, since people will just think she’s copying Trump. To put this another way, Kamala can walk down the aisle in a church, but she can’t, say, take a shift at a Planned Parenthood office. Trump just sewed up campaign events at the workplace.

Sixth, will the event win Trump a few thousand votes in Bucks County? I think it will. Will that win him Pennsylvania? Hard to say, but it won’t hurt him.

Seventh, will the event win Trump the irregular voters his campaign seeks? I would speculate yes. For that part of the working class that’s had a lot of jobs, so many that they can’t really think about voting, I would bet McDonald’s would have been one of them. Whether or not Trump does empathize, some of them might well think he does, and in a way Kamala clearly does not. If they have the day off, they might vote.

Not a bad outcome for a half-an-hour’s work. We should all be so lucky!

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About Lambert Strether

Readers, I have had a correspondent characterize my views as realistic cynical. Let me briefly explain them. I believe in universal programs that provide concrete material benefits, especially to the working class. Medicare for All is the prime example, but tuition-free college and a Post Office Bank also fall under this heading. So do a Jobs Guarantee and a Debt Jubilee. Clearly, neither liberal Democrats nor conservative Republicans can deliver on such programs, because the two are different flavors of neoliberalism (“Because markets”). I don’t much care about the “ism” that delivers the benefits, although whichever one does have to put common humanity first, as opposed to markets. Could be a second FDR saving capitalism, democratic socialism leashing and collaring it, or communism razing it. I don’t much care, as long as the benefits are delivered. To me, the key issue — and this is why Medicare for All is always first with me — is the tens of thousands of excess “deaths from despair,” as described by the Case-Deaton study, and other recent studies. That enormous body count makes Medicare for All, at the very least, a moral and strategic imperative. And that level of suffering and organic damage makes the concerns of identity politics — even the worthy fight to help the refugees Bush, Obama, and Clinton’s wars created — bright shiny objects by comparison. Hence my frustration with the news flow — currently in my view the swirling intersection of two, separate Shock Doctrine campaigns, one by the Administration, and the other by out-of-power liberals and their allies in the State and in the press — a news flow that constantly forces me to focus on matters that I regard as of secondary importance to the excess deaths. What kind of political economy is it that halts or even reverses the increases in life expectancy that civilized societies have achieved? I am also very hopeful that the continuing destruction of both party establishments will open the space for voices supporting programs similar to those I have listed; let’s call such voices “the left.” Volatility creates opportunity, especially if the Democrat establishment, which puts markets first and opposes all such programs, isn’t allowed to get back into the saddle. Eyes on the prize! I love the tactical level, and secretly love even the horse race, since I’ve been blogging about it daily for fourteen years, but everything I write has this perspective at the back of it.

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142 comments

  1. IM Doc

    I was informed this morning by the talking heads on the TV that Trump’s campaign staff should have known better, that putting him into this position was so so humiliating. This was stated in the most demeaning condescending manner I have seen in some time. It is like they have absolutely zero sense of empathy in any way. Their insulting comments that pierce right to the heart of so many Americans just make no impact on them at all. It is gobsmacking.

    Well, I think I have the past life experience to make a bit of a statement here.

    I started working in a fast food restaurant when I was a teenager ( Wendy’s to be exact ). I did that for a few years – it taught me all about hard work, dealing with bosses, dealing with angry customers, and handling my own affairs. I put my way through college on scholarships but also getting up every AM at 5 and working until 730 or so at another fast food place – and then spending many evenings and weekends waiting tables at another national chain. Then studying all night and all afternoon or doing athletics. I graduated debt free because of this. Then during med school, I worked every AM and dinner hour at a diner near the school that just happened to be in a gay neighborhood. So on top of working hard and earning tips, I was whistled at and grabbed in the front and the back daily and repeatedly. Again, I put myself through school doing all of this. And it gave me quite a bit of perspective on being the recipient of this kind of stuff – almost always I just laughed it off. But initially, I did find it a bit humiliating.

    It must be said that it is now completely impossible for kids to work their way through med school like I did – but that is a subject of another post).

    I am not ashamed in the least to admit that any of this occurred. There were times in that diner that I did feel a bit degraded or humiliated – but that too is part of life – learning to take care of ones self.

    When I look back on my life back then – I have nothing but warm memories – it taught me how to be a human being, how to deal with stress, how to manage time and my own income and money, and how to deal with all kinds of situations that were new to me as a young adult. It all made me so much stronger. I would not be where I am today and I have zero regrets. Modern students do not even try to do this – it would never begin to pay for school so why not just get all loaned up. There is a part of me that realizes this is what is wrong with a lot of our students today.

    One thing is for certain – even though this was now almost 40 years ago, I am personally connected to all kinds of people who worked with me in these places. If I ever had to prove I worked there – it would just require a few phone calls.

    The PMC, our media, and the Democratic party have clearly lost their marbles. I am not even sure what they are trying to say anymore.

    It is not the Trump event but the DEM reaction to it – and then today – the onstage appearance with Kamala and Liz Cheney – that I – who have not voted for a GOP for President since Reagan in 84 – will be voting for Donald Trump. The mind has been made up for sure today.

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    1. Lambert Strether Post author

      > Trump’s campaign staff should have known better, that putting him into this position was so so humiliating.

      I have a tweet to that effect, which included because of the worker putting on Trump’s apron (which was great) and smiling as she did it, and not in a fake way (also great). That slight relationship was the point of the video to me.

      What the hell was humiliating about it? He couldn’t bring in his Wharton Diploma and hang on the wall before the shift?

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    3. Joe Well

      It’s not just an issue of getting “loaned up”.

      I took quite a few jobs in college, but there weren’t many places that would schedule around a college student’s schedule and then have to change it all again next semester, and oh by the way I’ll disappear between mid-May and mid-September.

      I am 100% pro-immigration, but we all know who is staffing most our nation’s eateries, and it ain’t college students. Those opportunities in particular are a lot fewer.

      On-campus work-study jobs paid minimum wage or a dollar above, a drop in the bucket. Anyway, the low-work ones like in the library were hard to get, you had to be a good schmoozing and networking the semester before to get them when they opened up at the start of the next semester.

      Older Americans need to know just how much harder the economy is now and has been for a long time.

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        1. Joe Well

          Excellent, detailed explanation of how we can have real declining wages and growing poverty while the politicians crow about rising wages and falling unemployment.

          If that hasn’t been in Links yet, it should.

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    5. Screwball

      I don’t know who’s votes are yet to be had, but if you reduce the scope to which party has connected with the people who need help the most, I think the Trump/Vance team has won that battle. How many that might be I have no idea.

      I worry more about what happens after we find out.

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    7. Trogg

      I envy your capacity to make up your mind in this environment where there are clearly no good choices. The other guy campaigning with Elon Musk is as repugnant to me as Harris palling with Liz Cheney, and I am a longterm hater of the Cheneys.

      Just a note as someone who has also worked food service jobs (diners, delis, Baskin-Robbins). I’m not sure I could prove my entire work history from those days. Twenty years on I couldn’t tell you the names of my co-workers, and I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the old assholes who owned the businesses are dead (good riddance to the rightwing deli owner who told me people with aids in Africa deserve to die without treatment because they had unprotected sex).

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      1. hk

        Let me remind ypu that we’ve had people–self claimed left wingers–who were saying that people who were vaccine skeptical deserved to die of COVID last few years. Crazy roght wingers of yesteryear are now Democrats who think they are the left. I expect that people like these have turned many regulars here against the Dems (although not necessarily towards the Reps.)

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        1. JonnyJames

          In the old days, the “left wing” wanted to overthrow the capitalist state, and abolish private property. Nowadays the NewLeft (NewSpeak) cheer-lead for genocide, right along with their “conservative” buddies.

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      2. ilsm

        VP Harris probably worked a McD in Montreal where she spent here high school years.

        I worked in one in Albany NY making a bit of cash before entering the USAF in 1972.

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      3. Pilar

        I agree, I worked at food chains and retail in high school and throughout college back in the 80s and early 90s (back then and in my blue collar and immigrant neighborhood, you were not cool if you couldn’t find a job) and I doubt I could prove that I worked at these places now unless maybe my mom could dig up old tax info. I had friends at all these places at the time, but I can’t remember their names. I remember at my first job working at a shoe store, I made $4/hour plus commission.

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        1. Randall Flagg

          >and I doubt I could prove that I worked at these places now unless maybe my mom could dig up old tax info. I had friends at all these places at the time, but I can’t remember their names. I

          Well, it’s interesting how so much negative information about someone can be “leaked”, why not something to support Harris? C’mon someone in the IRS, track it down and get it out there. Trump’s tax returns got out, why not something less complicated. Unless they’ve been dumped long by now

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      4. B Flat

        Nearly a half century after working fast food HS, I still remember a few co-workers’ faces but not their names. But I could prove I worked there, or rather the IRS would prove it. IRS never forgets.

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        1. Felix

          IRS – I hadn’t thought of that. my KFC wages from the late 60’s reflect my stellar work there. 1.35 an hour – McD’s paid 1.10 at the time.

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    8. eg

      I worked high school summers and weekends in a meat packing plant where the cows and pigs walked in, and they were shipped out in boxes or on a hook; the plant included on-site rendering which I understood to be rather rare in Ontario.

      That was a real education, let me assure you.

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    9. LAS

      I think you are projecting onto DJT your own integrity. That is what a confidence artist leads you into doing. That is what sociopaths do, too. They understand you a lot better than you understand them.

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      1. Dornbirn Panther

        In an integrity contest I think it’s safe to say both candidates are thoroughly disqualified.

        And it also doesn’t change the fact this event did exactly what it was intended to do, and Harris couldn’t even be bothered to fake that she gives a damn.

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      2. Yves Smith

        You are the one projecting. IM Doc did not express enthusiasm for Trump, let alone going as far as depicting him as having integrity. What IM Doc was expressing was loathing so great for the Dems that he cannot support them. Look at how, as Lambert showed in the post. that Team Dem effectively depicted working at a McDonald’s as demeaning, which = fit only for deplorables.

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        1. LAS

          I retain my opinion. The whole bulk of that entry by IM Doc was about his life and his hard work. And that he does not understand the Democrats is a minor afterthought which is not explained.

          I also think you willfully misunderstand “team Dem” with generalizations.

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          1. Yves Smith

            You are now well into the terrain of bad faith argumentation, as in shifting your position to win while trying to pretend you have been consistent

            This was your assertion about IM Doc: “I think you are projecting onto DJT your own integrity”

            Not once did IM Doc ever say or imply anything about Trump’s ethics or character. This is entirely your invention. You are asserting that IM Doc made or implied claims about Trump via the recitation of his personal experience as an hourly laborer.

            His point was the Democrats have come to despise that.

            And nowhere did IM Doc try to defend voting for Trump as lesser evilism. His stance as presented here and elsewhere is altruistic punishment, that the Democrats need to pay for their bad acts even if that can and will result in other bad outcomes.

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    10. Lil’D

      Yes.
      I have multiple advanced degrees, teach part time at a prestigious university, have made a huge amount of money in my career, been CEO of a small company (just under $1 billion and ~30 employees).
      But did not grow up in country club world… remain a Marxist at heart…
      Worked Jack-in-the-Box in high school. Got lucky and got a job as a vendor at Jack Murphy Stadium, made maybe $200 at a football game and $75 or so at a Padres game with plenty of exercise and for football, watching most of the game as everyone was attending to the play while I served up a soda or peanuts.
      Not a Trump fan but my PMC deep blue crowd has it all wrong. Sneering about “ ZOMG it was staged!” completely misses the point.
      My blue collar friends (mostly tennis and guitar buddies) don’t like trump but hate the Dems, and think this stunt was wonderful.

      My vote for Stein is already in and I don’t think trumps policies are going to help, but I secretly hope that he wins if for no other reason than to stick it to the smug out of touch commentators. And if I, a cryptomarxist, feel that way, trump is very likely to win.

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      1. Walt Dutton

        My vote for Stein is already in

        Same here.
        I originally wasn’t going to vote for anyone – just leave it blank. But then I thought about the Arab Americans who will be voting for Stein in protest, and decided there was something worthwhile in that.
        I don’t think Stein has the shrewdness or experience to be an effective President.

        But I think a vote for Stein may certainly register as a protest.

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  2. dao

    I just watched the raw footage of his event. I did not read any MSM coverage of the event and I won’t. I’m not on social media so I don’t get my information from there. Based on the raw footage I’d say it was a successful campaign stunt.

    As an aside, I am surprised the french fryer is not automated in any way. The fries need to be cooked for one minute, then raised out of the oil by hand for a moment, then lowered again for a couple more minutes, Then raised again. He was cooking 3 batches at once and it looks confusing to do and keep track of all the timers.

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    1. Lambert Strether Post author

      > I just watched the raw footage of his event. I

      Got a link to the raw footage? I’d love to see it.

      Cooking three batches at once and watching the timers… No cognitive issues there!

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        1. Eudora Welty

          Thank you, I watched it. Interestingly, Mr. Orange pronounces Harris’s first name correctly (Comma-la) here at the McDonald’s, repeatedly! — while I heard him pronounce it as “Kahm-a-la” (accent on the “a”) repeatedly during the Al Smith dinner speech.

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    2. Cato the Uncensored

      Yes, I didn’t need a curated set of clips to see what a showman the Orange Man continues to be. I met him in 1990, and for five minutes I was the most important person in the room, and there he was doing it again by, for example, telling the guy coaching him through the fry station what a good trainer he was. Trump can connect with real people in ways that pro politicians can only hope to.

      He might not win the vote counts that really matter, but it looks like he will win the actual votes.

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      1. Yves Smith

        One of the salon people I saw regularly in NYC (a total character, an Eastern European diplobrat who worked in Paris before coming to NYC, and has no inhibitions about arguing with the Congresscritter women in her clientele about their politics) was part of the crew that got Trump and for other appearances, members of his family camera ready for appearances. She said he and his family were well liked by all the salon pros on that gig and she continues to think well of him.

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      2. Roger

        ‘Politics is the entertainment division of the military industrial complex.’ Frank Zappa. 7 November 2012 Reagan launched to transformation. Insult Comic Trump perfected the farce.

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  3. ChrisRUEcon

    Thanks for this!

    I went and watched the entire 31 minute C-SPAN video this morning after you posted in Links that there’d be more later. I laughed! I totally agree with the tweet that says his commentary was hilarious. Concur with your conclusions as well. We’ll see how it plays out in PA, but he did himself no harm here, and now chaos theory takes over – will the butterfly flapping its wings (Trump making fries) lead to the typhoon (a win in the Philly burbs and PA)?

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    1. Carolinian

      Supposedly McDonald’s is the country’s second largest employer by numbers–after Walmart.

      And a ditto on thanks for the post. As Lambert has pointed out people in opposition often insist on taking everything Trump says or does seriously even when–to most of us–he’s just kidding. The Dems have become the death of comedy.

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      1. Bsn

        Yes Yes Yes! You say “The Dems have become the death of comedy.” and you are spot on. I’ve been telling friends that comedy is dead. No way would I want to be a comedian – you will offend someone, a fundamental of comedy, and the be lambasted as racist, sexist, ageist or opposed to the LGBTCIA community. Poor comedians.
        We saw Blazing Saddles the other night. It’s right up there with the Marx Brothers. It could never be created today.
        Yes, I also blame the Dems and their wanna be liberal values.

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  4. Not Again

    It was brilliant. Right up there with “Would you buy a used car from this man” brilliant.

    “McDonald’s claims that 1 in 8 Americans have worked at a McDonald’s restaurant at some point in their lives. The company based this claim on a survey of American adults, in which 14% of respondents said they had worked or currently worked for McDonald’s.”

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  5. Wukchumni

    The McDonald’s where they film TV commercials is hidden away in an industrial section of LA fittingly called the City of Industry.

    It looks just like a regular Mickey D’s aside from the portable fence surrounding it when they aren’t filming.

    Trump’s stunt would’ve been pretty lame, if he merely cooked french fries and not have worked the drive thru window, which of course never happens in real life with a McDonald’s employee making fries.

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  6. Gumbo

    To pick a nit, from the link: “The museum makes it clear that Bush was a passenger – not the pilot – of the plane.”

    Reply ↓
      1. Cato the Uncensored

        He was a military-rated pilot in a comparable type. If he had been the sole manipulator of the controls at any point during that flight, he would have been pilot in command for that time; I doubt he was the sole manipulator of controls for the landing, since he had never done a carrier landing, but yeah, he may have been “the pilot” at some point in the flight.

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        1. Matthew G. Saroff

          He was a military rated pilot in the F-102, a single engine air force interceptor, not a twin engine carrier based anti-submarine aircraft.

          He could not have made the landing.

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      2. tegnost

        Just so long as you say “mission accomplished” as you hit the jetway and give a double thumbs up!…
        No one will fault you, especially if it’s a 737-800…

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      4. John Wright

        I remember my late mother, who was an elementary school teacher, commenting on a photo of George W. Bush wearing a jacket with “Commander in Chief” embroidered on it.

        She said it was like the kindergartener with his name pinned to his shirt by his parents.

        She was not fooled by GWB.

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  7. Matt Frost

    Considering Trump’s well-known obsession with toilets, I wonder if a custodian tryout would have been a more natural fit.

    Reply ↓
    1. Trogg

      Yes, I’d give money to Trump’s campaign if he went to a senior home and cleaned an adult’s diaper. Kamala, here’s a way to one-up Trump, if you’re reading.

      Reply ↓
      2. Lee Bronock

        I have a very particular First Senior Citizen in mind for her big Adult Diaper campaign event/stunt. It would be symbolic in so many ways.

        Reply ↓
    3. Enter Laughing

      Trump did clean bathrooms in one of his hotels as shown in this clip, along with performing other jobs including Concierge, Waiter and Room Service attendant. He showed the same kind of interest, respect and good humor as he did in his McDonald’s stunt.

      It’s a good practice and in fact just the other day Home Depot announced that all executives and senior managers will be required to work an 8-hour retail shift once every quarter in a Home Depot store.

      Reply ↓
  8. Rip Van Winkle

    I remember when Poppy Bush was doing a photo op at a grocery store and had never seen a scanner in his life.

    Soon after Bill and Al we’re jogging in their short-shorts from one McDonalds drive-through window to the next.

    Reply ↓
  9. The Rev Kev

    The guy is a natural showman and knows how to appeal to ordinary people. Like that time he was in a fast food joint and shouted everybody there free food. And it was a trap for his opponents. In order to denigrate him they went and denigrated the work that he did which also meant the workers that did that work. I bet that that did not go down well with a lot of people.

    Reply ↓
  10. Tom Stone

    Masterful trolling by Trump, as was the dancing at his rally.
    Compare this to the tone deaf Harris Commercials…
    I voted third party because Genocide is not OK, but I am enjoying the show Trump is putting on, and I also believe he would be a less effective Evil than Harris.

    Reply ↓
    1. chris

      Ninth, this stunt and his performance make it really hard to believe that Trump is capable of all the dictator-like behavior Team Blue is constantly accusing him of wanting to exhibit the minute he’s in office. This footage and his interaction with people during the event make it seem like he’s an ordinary American instead of the Orange love child of Hitler and Satan.

      I think this one stunt is going to make it much harder for Kamala to win.

      Reply ↓
      1. Bsn

        I agree. Trump is wanting to take the thumb off of corporations and powerful people, yet the dems want to put their thumb On The People, as well as let corporations and powerful people do as they please.

        Reply ↓
      2. marym

        I watched the McDonald’s video without the sound, mostly curious as to how he handled the tasks. He appeared to be talking and smiling like a normal person, and the workers seemed to enjoy the conversation, so he probably wasn’t showing the scorn he has for broad, and broadly stereotyped, segments of “little people” – including, presumably, McDonald’s workers, should their thoughts turn to overtime pay, union organizing, health care benefits, etc.

        Reply ↓
      3. Michael Fiorillo

        I’m enjoying the spectacle – debased as it is, what other pleasures do we have? – especially Trump’s genius at getting #McResistance types to immolate themselves in public; they never disappoint with their seemingly willful short-circuiting of critical faculties when it comes to all things Trump, always in service of their moral vanity (at the forefront) and PMC self interest (ever present, but which they are usually blind to, one reason they are so insufferable).

        On the other hand, on the “scorn for little people” question, it’s quite possible to be a sociopathic agent of class conflict and a “people person.” In fact, it’s almost required if one is going to be good at it, which Trump certainly is.

        As has been said here before, by Lambert I believe, Trump is fortunate in his enemies.

        Reply ↓
      4. ilpalazzo

        I think that for Liberals commoners are a different category of beings, like ants or bugs. For Trump, they are other people, which mind you doesn’t preclude him taking advantage of them.

        Reply ↓
    2. Bill B

      Yes, this was spectacle over substance and should’ve made people think about his polices towards (against?) workers, but instead many are gushing over it. He doesn’t have to deal with the problems those workers face day in and day out, like health care, among many others.

      Reply ↓
      1. JonnyJames

        True, but none of them do. There is no meaningful choice, but the easily-entertained and gullible need to BELIEVE that there is a choice. No matter what the outcome, the housing crisis, health care crisis etc. and living conditions for the vast majority of US dwellers will worsen. The Stockholm Syndrome afflicted masses will vote, as they always do, for their own destruction. Now that’s “engineering consent”.

        Reply ↓
    3. Paul Simmons

      You are sure? Why? Because this is what you have been told, a million times over?
      Certitude is the domain of fools.

      Reply ↓
  14. Randy

    Trump’s McDonalds appearance would have been better if he had prepared.
    He should have practiced making fries enough to achieve the appearance of a halfway competent french fry maker (is that what they call them?)
    The manager should have stepped in and fired his slow, incompetent butt for holding up the drive-in line. Then Trump could have made light of the fact that he is only a politician not a skilled McD worker.
    I thought it made him look stupid and pandering.

    Reply ↓
    2. Lou Anton

      “You are the type of person we want to be President” says man with accent. That clip in the Jeff Charles tweet is an example of the type of person that probably wins him the election.

      Reply ↓
  16. IM Doc

    Meanwhile, the same day Trump was doing this, Kamala was making a grand appearance at a black church in Atlanta –
    Somehow, our mainstream media neglected to put the footage in this tweet into the zeitgeist yesterday – she does not get near as much bad publicity as Trump, warranted or not..

    https://x.com/VoteHarrisOut/status/1848402352295837989

    This was brought to my attention this afternoon by one of my African American patients who will also be voting for Trump – the first GOP President in her lifetime.

    I see since I got home that this has really gone viral – millions of views on Twitter and TikTok – just like the McDonald’s stunt – and the comments from African American commenters are for the ages.

    The person(s) being escorted out BY THE COPS apparently deigned to ask Kamala a follow up question from her performance the other night – when she told the Jesus Is Lord people they do not belong in her rallies. FYI – that was the end for the last remaining Kamala supporting stragglers from my extended family.

    The auditorium of a church is called a SANCTUARY. You just do not have people thrown out by the cops.

    I do not know how viral this will go in the MSM – but clearly the damage is being done as we speak. The contrast with the Trump show at McDonald’s could not be more stark..This video is now competing for viral status with another one going around tonight – of Maria Shriver telling the TOWN HALL participants at the Kamala and Liz show today that No, actually, you only thought you were at a town hall, you do not get to ask questions – they are all predetermined……

    Can someone explain to me exactly what is a town hall then?

    They just keep shooting themselves in the foot – it is just amazing to watch.

    Reply ↓
    1. The Rev Kev

      Been thinking about your comment and wondered if the credentialed people that organized this church meeting would even understand the concept of a “sanctuary” at all. They are so used to calling the shots, not allowing questions to be asked unless it is by one of their trained seals and throwing out and having arrested any dissenters. If you told them that no, this is a church auditorium which is a sanctuary, would they even know what you are talking about? To them it would sound like you are defying them and telling them ‘no’ which they are not used to.

      Reply ↓
    2. tegnost

      Seriously, that is actually a big deal…preachers kid here…
      (That’s what I blame for my overbearing sanctimoniousness in case someone was wondering, and also my underbearing nonjudgementalaity just to make up a word or two)

      Reply ↓
      1. IM Doc

        It depends on which interpretation of his words and legacy you believe.

        It goes all the way from zero on one hand to every living being except 144,000 Jews and a few Gentile stragglers on the other extreme.

        There is a reason the West’s three main religions got us into the mess we are in today. They are all like this. Those of us who understand that fight this constantly.

        Reply ↓
        1. JonnyJames

          The interpretation of the four gospels is very clear to me, no matter which translation. Religion is just an excuse to mass murder people and steal all their stuff. Look at the millions of so-called Christians who justify and cheer-lead for genocide.

          Reply ↓
  17. ciroc

    We tend to look up to the upper class people who do the same work as the common people, but that is the mentality of feudal subjects. It’s no different from the medieval peasants looking in awe at the nobles working in the fields.

    Reply ↓
    1. Bugs

      I prefer the image of Caligula dressed as a plebeian, walking the streets of Rome to see what his subjects really think of him.

      Reply ↓
    2. JonnyJames

      Exactly. We have fancy tech gadgets nowadays, but people still worship the wealthy and celebrity. A Medieval peasant mindset to bow down to the aristocracy, they have a “divine right” of rule after all. Some things never change.

      Reply ↓
  18. David in Friday Harbor

    This was brilliant political theater, as I would expect from a master of reality television.

    However, I’ve read both of Mary Trump’s books and I’m astounded that so many of the Commentariat are able to ignore that DT is a total t*rd — a floater that persistently refuses to go down the chute.

    As a California prosecutor from 1985 to 2017 who was a close colleague of Kamala’s former SF Chief of Homicide (who believes her to be completely craven and self-serving), and who was personally stymied after going nose-to-nose with the CalPERS GC (Yves herself was in the room) when Kamala abandoned enforcement of the open-meetings law — I find myself repelled by DT’s cynical performance before the french-fry pit of a franchisee who is opposed to raising the minimum wage.

    In fact, while I was planning to vote for Dr. Jill Stein over the Palestinian Genocide, I’m going to cave and cast my vote for the empty-headed self-promoting politician from Berkeley High on the off chance that she just might pull a Teddy Roosevelt and remember her East Bay roots…

    Reply ↓
    1. Lee Bronock

      As Franklin Roosevelt is supposed to have remarked about Nicaraguan dictator Somoza back in the 1940s; “[He] may be a son of a b—-, but he’s our son of a b—-.”
      Considering San Francisco and political corruption in general; I feel like we are living in a Dashiell Hammett book.

      Reply ↓
    2. dao

      I voted 3rd party (as usual). If I had to choose between Kamala and Trump, it would be Trump.

      The main reason is: who would I rather have in charge now that we are on the brink of WWIII? Someone like Kamala who’s going to let the MIC do whatever it wants to do without strings or someone like Trump who is not as controllable?

      Reply ↓
    3. John Wright

      Wasn’t there also a strong case to prosecute some politically connected wealthy people for mortgage fraud in CA that was killed by Kamala Harris’s office?

      Hoping for Kamala to do a Teddy Roosevelt, given her priors is a stretch.

      At least Obama was a fairly blank slate on which to project “hope”.

      Not so Kamala.

      Reply ↓
    4. JonnyJames

      I am sadly disappointed that so many are caught up in the freak show and are lost in the forest. Highly intelligent people fall victim just as much as the ignorant. Even Ed Bernays would be in awe if he were still around.

      The lack of meaningful choice, Bipartisan support of genocide, kleptocracy, oligarchy and authoritarianism and the fact that bribery is legal should make is crystal clear that Elections Inc. is just the world’s most expensive and lucrative PR stunt. It generates billions, and maintains the status-quo, while giving the plebs entertainment and the thin illusion of choice – if we choose to “believe”. Like religion, this is based on faith and irrational expectations.

      Reply ↓
        1. JonnyJames

          Sadly, no. Her name will not even appear on all ballots, she has been totally ignored, even by the so-called progressive media outlets and very few people know who she is – she has absolutely no chance of “winning” the BigMoney rigged game. There is no such thing as meaningful democracy in the USA.

          Reply ↓
        2. IM Doc

          She is not now and never has been on the ballot in my county. Nor are any of the others but the Libertarian – who is just not an option.

          I am forced to pick the least evil – unfortunately – and that is what I will do. I was waiting to see which one would tip the scales.

          Reply ↓
            1. Valerie

              I agree. Not voting is lying down and taking whatever kick they give. Voting for the Lesser of Two Evils is assuming that one is notably less evil – which I don’t believe. The only moral and ethical choice for me is to lodge my protest vote by voting 3rd party. As they say in AA, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again (How many times have I voted for the Lesser of Two Evils?) and expecting a different result.

              Reply ↓
          2. Randall Flagg

            No write in line on your ballots?
            I recognize it’s peeing into the wind but a write in ( I hope), keeps the conscience clean.

            Reply ↓
    5. Cas

      I’m a bit surprised myself that people consider Trump’s performance a reason to vote for him. We are such simple creatures, after all. Triumph of form over substance. Bernie may have made himself irrelevant, but his point is accurate: Trump has no interest in raising the minimum wage, and it’s laughable to think he cares about the working class over corporations. He lowered taxes on corporations when he was president and plans to lower them even more if elected. He will roll back govt regulations, letting Elon Musk take the lead in that. Gee, what regulations might those be? environmental, worker safety, labor standards, all those that cost corporations money? He is a bigger supporter of Israel than Biden, assassinated Qasem Soleimani against international law, and would eagerly join Israel in a war against Iran. (Harris might, too, but only if told to. Let’s hope the Pentagon is able to prevail over State Dept. and puts the break on that insane idea.)
      I gave up on both parties decades ago and will do my usual third party protest vote. There are always state and local issues where one’s vote might make a difference, but there won’t be much difference whether Trump or Harris gets elected. The days of strong presidents are long over. Today’s president doesn’t have much control over domestic or foreign policy, so the whole campaign carnival is just that. It’s a distraction for the hoi polloi while the business of running the empire continues apace.

      Reply ↓
      1. JonnyJames

        But focusing on serious issues and policy is no fun. We prefer freak-show distractions and bullshit. Besides, every 4 years, the gullible and desperate WANT to believe that “it will be different this time”.

        Reply ↓
    6. Felix

      she won’t.
      I remember her saying something about “that little girl was me” referring to segregation years back. Berkeley High had been integrated years before she was born.
      she won’t.

      Reply ↓
      1. marym

        “Senator Harris is correct in describing her experience as the second class to be part of the busing integration program. All Berkeley elementary schools were integrated through an innovative two-way busing plan, which was implemented voluntarily by our district beginning in 1968. Kamala Harris joined first grade in 1970, which means she joined a cohort that had entered kindergarten in the second year of the busing program, in 1969.”

        https://www.berkeleyschools.net/2019/07/the-history-of-integration-in-berkeley-elementary-schools-and-senator-harris/

        Reply ↓
    7. Yves Smith

      I am not saying this is at all deserved, since at the time there was a bipartisan consensus. But working class people did well under Trump during Covid due to the various income subsidies and increase in unemployment insurance payouts. Yes, you can also point out that business owners did even better through the Payroll Protection Act. But the Covid economic response on that front was substantial and did happen on Trump’s watch.

      Reply ↓
      1. David in Friday Harbor

        All true.

        However, your mileage may vary. My personal experience of DT’s governance as a lumpen-PMC was a savage tax increase while massive tax-breaks were doled-out to the wealthy. This leads me to the conclusion that crumbs were being thrown to the masses while he geared-up to sell-off infrastructure after 2020, mostly to Our Friends the Saudis.

        My biggest beef with DT is his crass selfishness. A former colleague who had been a GOP U.S. Senate staffer warned back at the beginning of 2015 that DT was about to unleash unabated greed and incivility on a historic scale. This did come to pass. I’m ecastatic that Totenkopf dropped-out. I’ll take Luftkopf over Dummkopf without the slightest expectation of anything other than that the collapse of our civilization might possibly proceed with a skosh more civility (and some inappropriate laughter)…

        Reply ↓
  19. CA

    What I find troubling is that there should be almost no respect shown for many, many young workers, such as for student workers whose families are earning 44.6% more in 2023 than was earned in 1980, while student tuitions and fees have increased by a remarkable 1,075%.

    I have only respect for the importance shown of working at a McDonalds.

    Reply ↓
    2. Revenant

      Interesting exchange of views there. They’re both wrong and both right in a way.

      Trump is not old money and patrician – he was once slighted in Vanity Fair as “short-fingered vulgarian” – and I don’t think he is capable of noblesse oblige because, like every other neoliberal billionaire, he is purely transactional and does not believe in mutual obligations. I am sure he has Leona Helmsley’s “Taxes are for little people” embroidered on his repro Louis Quinze.

      However, he is authentic and confident and – in my framing of the difference between the PMC and the gentry – he crucially believes in judgment over process. If he feels a thing to be true, he will reshape the world around it. Trump wouldn’t run a lawfare campaign, that’s why he’s snared in one, because lawfare is a creature of process and bureaucracy.

      So, cooking fries in a shirt and tie is costume entertainment rather than noblesse oblige but also a triumph of “aristocratic” personal judgment over campaign process. Trump for tyrant!

      Reply ↓
  21. zach

    Bill Clinton was obviously lipsyncing his saxophone solo, too important to leave that to chance.

    Harvey Two-Face makes his own luck…

    I didn’t read the previous comments but gotdang there’s a joke in here somewhere about Apprentice Trump somethingsomething.

    Reply ↓
  22. Ignacio

    What one can see clearly is that the Presidential campaign is all about avoiding any talk on real policy and something like a presentation of fighters/boxers before the audiences. The only one in this post saying something politically worthy was Sanders… so he must be sidelined. How he dares! When elections are nothing but a circus Democracy is nothing but a game of thrones.

    Reply ↓
    1. JonnyJames

      Policy? No we don’t want no policy, only cheap spectacle and cringeworthy PR stunts. It would become too obvious that both freaks support Genocide, proxy wars, oligarchy and kleptocracy. Giving away 10s of billions to a foreign country to commit genocide is “patriotic”, funding health care, infrastructure etc. is treason.

      Reply ↓
  23. JohnA

    I think it was a great stunt and kudos to Trump for pulling it off.

    However, as someone who worked in a food factory as a student, I have one criticism, Trump should have been wearing some kind of hair covering around the food. I guess he did not want his bouffant crafty combover to be too disturbed during the photoshoot.

    Reply ↓
  26. DJG, Reality Czar

    The highlight for me is the McDo’s letter about about “not being a political brand,” even though McDo’s is currently the subject of a painful boycott for feeding Israeli soldiers for free. Heck, it isn’t political. It’s a promotional code for war!

    And the effect of the fast-food chains and Amazon on the minimum wage is somehow not political? The minimum wage stuck way too low, while the execs blabber on about opportunity for workers and the interference of Those Evil Unions?

    As to stunts that Harris can pull related to food, I’d recommend:
    Harris can try working for one of the many small fast-food joints in Chicago. I wonder if they can train her to make a Maxwell Street Polish. With extra onions.

    Reply ↓
  27. B Flat

    Trump may have won the county with this exchange:

    Customer: You made it possible for ordinary people like us to meet you
    Trump: You’re not ordinary, you’re not ordinary.

    Uplifting and relatable, even if PR. He doesn’t need to debate Harris again, so he’s not. Harris with her odd inappropriate laughter and evasiveness is at a disadvantage. She simply doesn’t have the ease with voters in the wild that Trump has.

    I still haven’t quite decided. There will be a Trump Rally™ Madison Square Garden this Sunday. I’m going to check it out.

    Reply ↓
  29. Revenant

    On the subject of Trump, has there been an NC film review or collation of MSM reviews of The Apprentice anywhere?

    I’ve had somebody with film chops urge me to go saying it’s really a study of Roy Cohn in the style of Revenge of the Sith (but I haven’t seen that so I cannot tell much from the praise) but other comments make me think there may be too much Trump Derangement Syndrome for it to be enjoyable.

    Has anybody seen it and got a view?

    Reply ↓
  30. Boshko

    It’s 2016 all over again. Having consumed very little election coverage if possible, it strikes me that:

    1) Trump cunningly getting loads of free media time, this time beyond just the corporate media, while the Dems brag about how much they’re fundraising because they require it to spend on useless ad buys. This was a real alley-oop and the donald didn’t miss the dunk (apologies for a sports analogy).

    2) The Dems completely delusional about their position and complete lack of self-awareness looking like it will again manifest in all kinds of paper tigers to blame (Russia! misinformation! mcdonalds, probably). I think this is the 2024 version of the “deplorables” moment, no?

    3) Since when is a multinational corporation’s franchise location a small business owner?! What a clever slight of hand that mcdonalds and other corporate giants have played if they’ve managed to convince their customers that they’re really just supporting a local small business. LMFAO!

    Reply ↓
    1. Duke of Prunes

      On your 3rd point, not to be a McDonald’s stooge, but I know two small time franchise owners (one or two restaurants in small towns) and, from what I can tell, they really do operate like other successful small town, small business owners. That is, they support community projects (food drives, etc.) and donate to community functions (e.g. hot chocolate at the Christmas lighting event), are involved in service clubs like the Lions or Rotary, etc. Similar to the franchise hardware store owner.

      Not to say they’re all like this, but there are at least 2 :D.

      Reply ↓
      1. doug

        I used to work on sportfishing and cruising boats. One of our customers owned (was buying) two McD franchises. His handle was ‘french fry guy’ and he had started out working after HS graduation at one of the two. It does happen.

        Reply ↓
      2. lambert strether

        > they support community projects

        Read Chris Arnade’s Dignity for a look at the kind of patrons a completely rapacious firm would fire immediately.

        Reply ↓
  31. antidlc

    Corporate is saying, in the nicest possible way (“don’t have records for all positions dating back to the ’80s”) that they have no record of Kamala ever having worked there. (The press, in other words, has it exactly backwards: They say that Trump claims “without evidence” that Kamala didn’t work at McDonald’s. But Kamala made the claim, so it’s up to her to provide the evidence. So far, we have to take her claim on faith.)

    If she worked at McDonald’s and Social Security was taken out of her paycheck, the SSA should have a record of her earnings.

    Reply ↓
  32. JonnyJames

    The Election Freak Show continues, the kakistocracy are on parade. Meanwhile, in West Asia, the bodies burning, as the war machine keeps turning. Soylent Green burgers anyone?

    Reply ↓
  33. paul w.

    I think Trump is simply a grifter. He knows how to make people hear things they want to hear, regardless of what he says. My mother lost 5 thousand dollars to a grifter pulling a romance scam on her. He told her things she wanted to hear for months. After she wired him 5 thousand dollars, he disappeared.
    If you don’t think Democrats or Republican parties deserve your vote, there is always a third party. If I vote third party and they don’t win, it’s not my fault.

    Reply ↓
  34. NotTimothyGeithner

    For the most part, I think these events aren’t big deals. Bill Clinton did go on Arsenio (in this era of reboots, why is Bill Maher still on HBO and not Arsenio?), but it didn’t do anything for him in the long run. He simply went from over 60% at the start of the Summer to 42% in November.

    To me, Trump going is goofy and fun for the volunteers and field staff (lets be honest, they all need breaks except the complete loons), but the outrage from Team Blue is that its a clear microcosm of Team Blue’s attitudes towards voters.

    For every voter, Lynne Cheney brings, Harris will lose a volunteer and by extension sometimes voters. The outreach shouldn’t be explaining “how this is SMRT politics” but closing arguments. This is where Team Blue is. Trump on the other hand is avoiding questions about his fitness, about his policies, and about his staff, and instead held a dance party to John Phillips Sousa’s greatest hits because no one will authorize music for him.

    The Team Blue reaction is a byproduct of recognizing the poor results of the current campaign and not understanding how the weirdos who work for politicians aren’t more popular.

    Reply ↓
    1. JonnyJames

      Even though I would never “vote” for a D or R genocidal freak, if we have to have a genocidal freak in the WH it should be the DT. Several people on this thread have expressed their approval of DT and gave him “kudos”.

      Although a lifelong conman and liar, the DT is a more honest and accurate representation of the USA: ignorant, loud-mouthed, bigoted, and an all around asshole. He’s the perfect Ugly American. Plus, the plebs find him more entertaining.

      Reply ↓
  35. Laughingsong

    “imagine Biden trying the work the fryer”

    Not without emergency services on standby in the parking lot…..

    Reply ↓
  36. hemeantwell

    In terms of labor relations, we can call this a successful attempt at “remedial personalization,” wherein sellers of labor power are treated to interstitial moments of relaxed, humane engagement by the powerful. (This used to be thought of as part of “paternalism,” but “parentalism” would be more apt). This is both obvious and not, especially when consideration of the event gets caught up in an evaluation of its political efficacy as we are doing here, since in this society the political is in a strong sense an ongoing drama of remedial personalization.

    I’ve worked stints in both a big box retailer and on an assembly line. In those roles I was very aware, in a kind of dissociated way, of how good it felt for the foreman — the big box guy was a remarkable s**thead — to give me an attaboy, or even for the time and motion study drone to sorta commend me by saying I was working close to “the rate.” It feels good when an otherwise negatively charged situation is even briefly resolved into something confirming and benign, even though you know it’s all scripted. It feels better to love than to hate, and as the hours drag on — or as the idea of a higher minimum wage gets blown off — you can refer back to the transient good times and imagine getting through the day.

    In saying this I’m not demeaning the workers who are responding positively. The point is that in this society, in which the notion of “labor rights” is such a slender bulwark against corporate demands, you can get pushed into drawing on fantasy-based resources to get by. Been there, done it.

    Reply ↓
  37. Aloyosius Wolfe

    I worked for the Burger King one high school summer. A college aged beauty named Libby from Libby, MT worked there and the thing I remember is that she said that she didn’t go home there anymore. A decade or so later, I learned about the asbestos trouble there. I hope she had a good life.

    Given the choice as a “lessor of two weevils”, I look forward to The Donald signing legislation over the objection of the minority party and asking Nancy, “Do you want fries with that?”.

    Reply ↓
  38. Craig Dempsey

    Well, that McD visit sure became old news fast. Read today’s McD news here. I hope there is no cause and effect relationship between the two stories! Bon Appetit!

    Reply ↓
  40. Paul Greenwood

    Panem et Circenses

    In all honesty – it was folksy political campaigning and Trump does folksy far better than Kamala because he grew up with construction and had to charm union workers to get his projects done………Kamala is white collar privilege all the way. That is it !

    Back in the real world……where US seems hellbent on committing international suicide with crazies running the State Department and driving the Pentagon to distraction……..and nonentities like Starmer act like mini-Zelenskies……….we have chaos.

    Starmer is terrified Biden has not renewed the expiring Nassau Agreement with UK and Trump might not…….expires in December and on that hinges Trident D-5 missiles and a raft of mutually beneficial deals going back to Skybolt and when US needed enriched plutonium from UK reactors.

    The Biden Era is catastrophically out-of-control and US is bedazzled by domestic unrealities

    Reply ↓

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