How McDonald's became an unlikely icon in American politics

Last Sunday, former President Donald Trump briefly worked at a suburban Pennsylvania McDonald’s, staffing the fry station and drive-thru window, handing bags to car-bound customers who had been pre-screened by his campaign for security. While working a shift at a job outside the typical confines of politics for a photo opp isn’t exactly a new campaign strategy, Trump’s visit was less about advocating for a particular position or even connecting with so-called everyday voters.

Rather, it was engineered to needle Kamala Harris.

At several campaign stops and in speeches, Vice President Harris has mentioned she worked at McDonald’s while earning her degree at Howard University. The Trump campaign has since suggested — without proof — that Harris is lying about her experience, asking her to present evidence of her employment. 

McDonald’s has stated they don’t “have records for all positions dating back to the early ‘80s,” the time period during which Harris would have worked, but Trump has pushed on. When he walked into the fast-food restaurant on Sunday, he said to the franchise owner, “I’ve always wanted to work at McDonald’s, but I never did. I’m running against somebody that said she did, but it turned out to be a totally phony story.” 

In an internal memo obtained by the Associated Press the following day, McDonald’s Corp. told employees the company would not be endorsing a political candidate, nor should Trump’s recent drive-thru photo op be misconstrued as an endorsement. 

“Upon learning of the former president’s request, we approached it through the lens of one of our core values: we open our doors to everyone,” the company said. “McDonald’s does not endorse candidates for elected office and that remains true in this race for the next president. We are not red or blue – we are golden.”

However, by that point, it looked like the Trump campaign had already started producing “MAGADonald’s” merch, a collection of now sold-out T-shirts featuring an image of the president handing out bags of food. Then, during a live Twitch stream last week, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and vice presidential candidate Tim Walz jokingly linked Trump’s visit to McDonald’s recent, deadly E. coli outbreak. “That man stuck his hands in the fries,” Ocasio-Cortez said. 

So, for all of McDonald’s statements about remaining neutral, the fast-food giant has nonetheless become a prominent symbol in this election cycle — and it’s easy to see why. 

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Fox News is going wild for Trump's McDonald's stunt.

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At its core, McDonald’s really feels like an American business. It’s not one of the regional chains towards which politicians sometimes flock to establish their local bona fides, like in the case of President Joe Biden’s well-documented affinity for Wawa, nor is it too foreign-feeling for the masses (put another way, no one is going to stump at Au Bon Pain). 

McDonald's originated in 1940 in San Bernardino, California, where Richard and Maurice McDonald opened the first restaurant. It was acquired by businessman Ray Kroc in 1961 and has since expanded to over 39,000 locations worldwide, with about 13,450 of those in the United States. 

It’s the kind of audacious success story that feels like an American dream, only made better by the fact that it was built on heartland commodity products like grain and beef (plus, an ample amount of minimum-wage labor). The iconography of McDonald’s — namely the golden arches — has become so interwoven with both the cultural and literal landscape of the country that when people think of the United States as the land of apple pie and hamburgers, they could just as well be envisioning the McDonald’s fried variety and Big Macs. 

Part of this, of course, can be attributed to McDonald’s sheer ubiquity. 

The fast-food giant reportedly has a presence in every U.S. state, and in 49 of the 50 state capitals. McDonald’s has often pointed out that “1 in 8 Americans have worked at a McDonald’s restaurant” — a figure some economists question, though its implication is hard to miss: nearly everyone knows someone with a personal connection to the company.

Yet, McDonald’s cultural impact goes well beyond its footprint or workforce. Its cross-generational relevance stems from a blend of nostalgia and well-timed partnerships. Classic seasonal offerings like the Shamrock Shake and Halloween-themed “Boo Buckets” have remained fan favorites, while new collaborations, such as the 2020 “Adult Happy Meals” with cult streetwear brand Cactus Plant Flea Market, keep the brand contemporary.

Over the years, it has teamed up with cultural heavyweights — from Disney, Michael Jordan and Larry Bird in the '90s to modern-day celebrities like BTS, Travis Scott and Saweetie — building a bridge between past and present customers. It’s no wonder politicians might try to align themselves with a brand that resonates so universally.

However, in the realm of politics, McDonald’s also operates more broadly as a convenient, yet powerful rhetorical chameleon. Because the fast-food company is so large and multifaceted, and because it means something a little different to a lot of people, politicians can graft whatever the topic of the day is to the company, from concerns over public health and corporate power to questions about the minimum wage. 

In the case of Kamala Harris, her experience working at McDonald’s has been held up by her campaign as evidence to both minimum-wage workers and middle-class Americans that Harris understands their economic struggles. “I was a student when I was working at McDonald’s,” Harris said, for instance, at a 2019 SEIU rally advocating for higher wages. 

“There was not a family relying on me to pay the rent, put food on the table and keep the bills paid by the end of the month,” she continued. “But the reality of McDonald's is that a majority of the folks who are working there today are relying on that income to sustain a household and a family.”

Trump, for his part, has a track record of supporting economic measures that are amenable to large corporations, like McDonald’s, but his affinity for the company is more personal. As reported by Newsweek, the former president has a well-documented fear of being poisoned or made ill by food and perceives fast food to be a solution. 

“I’m a very clean person. I like cleanliness, and I think you’re better off going there than maybe someplace that you have no idea where the food’s coming from. It’s a certain standard,” Trump told CNN in a 2016 town hall. “One bad hamburger, you can destroy McDonald’s.”

He has also made knowing the menu well a point of pride while on the campaign trail. Speaking to Fox News last week, Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr. said his father “knows the McDonald’s menu much better than Kamala Harris ever did.” 

Regardless of the approach, it’s clear that for candidates, McDonald’s isn’t just a brand, but part of the American identity, one that continues to hold meaning across generations. Whether it’s through a nostalgic lens or a critique of American capitalism, it’s a business that remains a constant in the public consciousness. And in this election season, it’s clear the Golden Arches will continue to be a familiar signpost for the political stage.