Journalists observe a Donald Trump campaign event at a McDonald’s in Bucks County, Pennsylvania Oct. 20.(Photo: Christina Kristofic, Pennsylvania Capital-Star)
Former President Donald Trump, the GOP nominee for president, has a busy schedule of events in Pennsylvania this weekend that kicked off Saturday evening with a rally in Latrobe where he approvingly described the anatomy of the late golfer Arnold Palmer.
“This is a guy that was all man,” Trump said of Palmer, “when he took showers with the other pros, they came out of there they said, ‘oh my God, that’s unbelievable.’”
It was perhaps the most surprising comment the former president made at the event where, after speaking about Latrobe native Palmer for roughly 15 minutes, he resumed talking about familiar themes and grievances. He criticized Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee for president; blamed President Joe Biden and Harris for inflation and a “crisis” at the southern border, and marveled at how SpaceX, whose CEO Elon Musk is a recently vocal Trump supporter, was able to fly and land a rocket booster in a recent test flight.
On Sunday, Trump visited a McDonald’s restaurant in Lower Southampton, Bucks County, where he donned an apron and worked the drive-thru for about 20 minutes. He served only a few pre-screened people who said they had won the opportunity in a lottery.
“I’m having a lot of fun here, everybody,” Trump said, waving to the several dozen members of the media gathered in the restaurant parking lot. “I’ve now worked here 15 minutes more than Kamala,” he said, mispronouncing Harris’ first name. “She never worked here.”
Trump had been talking for about a month about working at a McDonald’s, after Harris began touting her experience working at the fast food chain when she was in college.
Part of the reason she talks about it, she said in an MSNBC interview is “because there are people who work at McDonald’s in our country who are trying to raise a family — I worked there as a student, I was a kid — who work there trying to raise families and pay rent on that.”
She added, “And I think part of the difference between me and my opponent includes our perspective on the needs of the American people and what our responsibility then is to meet those needs.”
Thousands of people lined Street Road about two hours before Trump was scheduled to arrive. They cheered for vehicles with Trump stickers and flags and booed vehicles with stickers supporting Harris.
The crowd got quiet only when Trump arrived. None of them were allowed into the restaurant. The site was closed off to all but the media and the few pre-screened drive-thru supporters.
Trump worked the fryer for a bit and helped fill bags for drive-thru orders, according to pool reports.
After Trump served some supporters, he took questions from the press. He said he wants a victory this year that is so overwhelming that the results are “too big to rig.”
The Harris campaign’s Pennsylvania communications director Jack Doyle slammed Trump on social media, after video from the McDonald’s visit showed Trump sidestepping questions about raising the $7.25/hour minimum wage. “Well I think this. These people work hard. They’re great. And I just saw something, a process that’s beautiful,” Trump said.
“Trump can play dress up as a worker, but will still screw them over every chance he gets,” Doyle posted.
The Harris campaign said Sunday’s event was a preview of what Trump would do if he were elected again. “Today, Donald Trump showed exactly what we would see in a second Trump term: exploiting working people for his own personal gain,” campaign spokesperson Joseph Costello said in a statement. “Trump doesn’t understand what it’s like to work for a living, no matter how many staged photo ops he does, and his entire second term plan is to give himself, his wealthy buddies, and giant corporations another massive tax cut. Vice President Harris on the other hand has a record of standing up for workers and taking on bad actors who rip people off, and she’ll do the same as President.”
The Capital-Star had previously asked U.S. Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), Trump’s running mate, what he thought the federal minimum wage should be.
“President Trump believes very strongly that the best way to promote raising Americans’ wages is with tight labor markets. When an employer has got to pay a good wage to attract the right people,” Vance said in response to a question by the Capital-Star on Aug. 19 during a campaign event in Philadelphia. However, as a senator, Vance sponsored a bill in 2023 to raise the federal minimum wage.
The liberal Super PAC People Power Pennsylvania issued a statement calling Trump’s McDonald’s visit an “unserious stunt” and “cosplay” designed “to distract from the devastating impact his tariffs and labor laws will have on Pennsylvania workers.”
“Donald Trump’s plans serve up more wealth and greed for fast food CEOs while leaving PA workers with nothing but crumbs,” said J.J. Abbott, a long-time Pennsylvania strategist and leader of People Power Pennsylvania.
Trump was joined at the Latrobe rally by several Republican allies including U.S. Rep. Dan Meuser (R-9th District) and GOP candidate for U.S. Senate Dave McCormick. Former Pittsburgh Steelers Le’Veon Bell and Antonio Brown appeared on stage ahead of Trump, with Brown mocking Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the Democrats’ vice presidential nominee, as “not a real coach,” and calling him “Tampon Tim.”
Republicans have criticized Walz for a policy he signed last year as part of Minnesota’s budget, that requires public schools to provide free menstrual products to any students who need them. Trump falsely claimed it meant Minnesota schools were being forced to put tampons in boys’ bathrooms.
This story was originally published in Pennsylvania Capital-Star, which is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.