While her husband was in the White House, Michelle Obama made reducing childhood obesity one of her primary initiatives as First Lady. She planted a lush garden filled with wholesome vegetables, ensured balanced meals were available in public schools, and encouraged physical activity among elementary and middle schoolers. Which makes these images of Donald Trump at the White House surrounded by Big Macs and Filet-O-Fish's — plus some sad, wilted fast food salads for good measure? — all the more bitingly ironic.
While Trump's own diet, which is said to consist largely of things like hamburgers and overcooked steak with ketchup, has been the subject much scrutiny, these Happy Meals aren't for him. They're for members of the Clemson Tigers football team, who recently won against their rivals at the University of Alabama at the College Football Playoff National Championship. Go Tigers!
AdvertisementADVERTISEMENT
Leave it to Trump, however, to make something as seemingly classy as dinner at the White House feel cheap — and something as seemingly innocent as college football all about him and his much-obsessed-over border wall. You see, ordinarily, guests dining at the White House would be the recipients of a more, shall we say, traditional supper. You know, probably one that necessitates a knife and a fork to consume. But because the White House chefs are furloughed as part of the government shut down over the aforementioned wall, Trump decided to take one for the team (literally, I guess!) and pay for the meal himself... with the cheapest food he could possibly acquire, that is.
Trump told reporters prior to the meal that he'd be springing for food from multiple fast food establishments, including Burger King, McDonald's, and Wendy's. He also acknowledged there would be "some pizza," but did not reveal what the origins of said pizza might be. I don't know why, but I'm pegging him for a Pizza Hut kind of guy. Dominos feels a little too high-brow, if I'm being honest. By the way, I mean no shade to Pizza Hut, or fast food as a culinary genre, it just seems weird — and a little sad — to consume it in the White House, surrounded by golden candelabras and oil paintings of Abraham Lincoln.
It's not a small amount of food, but according to the Washington Post, who did an exhaustive breakdown of the 300-burger meal and its costs, he spent about $3,000 on it. Which for a dude who claims to be worth $10 billion is basically the equivalent of inviting your pals over for dinner, serving them your funky leftovers from three days ago, and then using the opportunity to rant about your problems at work.
"Great American food!" NPR reports Trump told reporters at a news conference. "And it could be very interesting to see at the end of this evening how many are left." Right. He then, predictably, changed the subject to his favorite topic: the wall. "We need border security," he said. "We have to have it. No doubt about it. It should have happened 30 years ago, 20 years ago, 10 years ago. And it's gonna happen now."
So, um, yeah, we're guessing that's why there was no Taco Bell on offer? Not that those optics have stopped him in the past.
AdvertisementADVERTISEMENT