(Julianna Frieman, Headline USA) CNN This Morning panelists praised Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on Monday for his “unbelievably smart” choice to work a Sunday afternoon shift at a swing state’s McDonald’s.
Trump countered Democrat nominee Kamala Harris’s debunked claims that she had a job making fries at McDonald’s by clocking in at a McDonald’s in Bucks County, Pennsylvania.
The GOP nominee donned the fast-food joint’s iconic apron as he made fries, bagged orders and engaged with ecstatic supporters from the drive-thru window.
This is awesome 😎
pic.twitter.com/RMkE20qWo2— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 20, 2024
“When I first saw that image of Trump kind of hanging out the drive-thru window, part of me thought, ‘Wow, is that real?’ I never thought he would do something like that” CNN host Kasie Hunt told panelists.
Hunt compared Trump’s appearance to his 1999 McDonald’s commercial, noting that he went from projecting the image of someone who seemed like he would own a McDonald’s to someone who worked at the fast-food restaurant.
The CNN host applauded the Republican nominee’s populist plan to appeal to working-class voters, even if it resulted in a bit of cognitive dissonance to see the billionaire president serving up fries.
“Clearly, they have a strategy to try to appeal to working-class voters—try to, you know, twist the knife on Harris. But I still found these images to be jarring,” Hunt said.
They also commended Trump for his authenticity—an issue with which his Democrat rivals, Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, have routinely struggled
“Part of what is so striking about them is he’s not trying to not be Donald Trump,” CNN commentator Kristen Soltis Anderson said. “Like, some politicians go and they try to dress up as somebody their not.”
The CNN commentator continued to say Trump has always branded himself as a rich guy who doesn’t like other rich guys.
“He’s still got the red tie. He’s still so clearly himself, and I think this was an unbelievably smart move because one thing that he differentiated Donald Trump from other really wealthy politicians is that he has never been seen as the aloof, the billionaire who would never deign to hang out with the commoner,” Soltis Anderson said.
ICONIC 🍟 pic.twitter.com/TeSI0ffffO
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) October 20, 2024
“He has always sort of portrayed himself as, ‘I’m the rich guy who doesn’t really like the other rich guys,” she added.
Trump himself spoke about the experience on Monday while visiting the western North Carolina region devastated last month by Hurricane Helene.
In response to a question about undecided voters, he credited his recent surge in the betting polls to the hard work and dedication he had shown in his unyielding desire to fix what is broken in America.
“I’ve been going full blast—yesterday you saw that, we had early in the morning till late in the evening,” he said.
“We left the [Pittsburgh Steelers] football game, we went to a McDonald’s—that was quite a stop,” he continued. “That was quite a stop—thousands and thousands. They had 25,000 people around circling the building—I wouldn’t say the Secret Service was thrilled, but that’s the way it is. It was a lovefest, though. It was incredible.”
Julianna Frieman is a freelance writer published by the Daily Caller, Headline USA, The Federalist, and The American Spectator. Follow her on Twitter at @JuliannaFrieman.
