"Shutdown" requires, Donald Trump invites junk food to the White House
Used to wandering his thoughtful air over the tables in the White House dining room, the portrait of Abraham Lincoln yesterday seemed rather dubious in front of the stage offered to him. It was in front of this painting of the 16th President of the United States painted by George P.A. Healy that Donald Trump bowed to the tradition of welcoming the winners of the college football championship.
On Monday, January 14, he put the dishes in the big for the reception of the team of the Clemson Tigers (Clemson University, South Carolina). A splendor peculiar to Donald Trump, a famous junk food lover, who for the occasion ordered ... a heap of Royal Cheese, Big Macs and pizzas.
The president thought the team would enjoy the fast food: “We have very tall people who love to eat. So I think we'll have a little fun, ”he explains, obviously proud of the effect.
Closed kitchens
It is not customary for White House chefs to offer junk food in the State Dining Room, the larger of the two reception rooms on the main level of the official residence of the President of the States. -United.
But "shutdown" requires, they are at home, to wait for an agreement between the president and Congress. For 24 days, they have been part of some 800,000 federal employees on technical unemployment or working without receiving a salary, victims of the standoff between President Donald Trump and the elected Democrats who cannot agree on a draft budget. . Budget talks between the Republican president, who calls for funding for a border wall with Mexico, and his Democratic opponents, who oppose it, have stalled.
Donald Trump took the opportunity to throw spikes at his political opponents and mount his hobbyhorse: defending his proposed wall with Mexico. “Republicans are united, we need border security. It should have been done thirty years, twenty years, ten years ago. But we'll deal with it, ”he said.
"300 burgers, lots of fries, whatever we like"
By hosting the Clemson Tigers, the president also launched into a long tirade mixing burgers and shutdown:
"We have pizza, we have 300 burgers, lots of fries, whatever we like. We ordered American fast food and I'm the one paying (…). It's because of the shutdown, as you know… Lots of burgers, pizzas, I think they're going to prefer that to anything we could have offered them. (...) I want to see what will be left when we are gone, but I don't think there will be much left. "
A questionable point of view, since as Timothy Burke, head of video at the Daily Beast reminds us, the members of the Clemson Tigers team being high level athletes, they are supposed to control their diet: it is precisely the mission of chef Donna McCain.
But these dietary considerations seem far removed from the president's concerns. Asked about his favorite fast food restaurant, the president didn't decide: “I love them all. If it's American, I like it. Everything is American ”. "Rather McDonald's or Wendy's? », Tried to revive him a journalist. "I love them all," replied Donald Trump. "Only good things, super American food".
A passion for fast food which could be linked to his fear of poisoning
The president has never hidden his love for greasy, junk food from fast food restaurants - he's been seen posing on Instagram with a bucket of KFC fried chickens and performing in two ads for Pizza Hut. A passion that could be linked to something other than his attraction to ketchup: the fear of poisoning. In his book Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, journalist Michael Wolff explains that "he likes to eat McDonald's because no one knows he's coming and the food is prepared ahead of time."
On Tuesday, January 15, Donald Trump returned to the reception the day before, recalling that it was he who had paid for everyone. One of his many opponents noted on Twitter that the president had spent 2,000 dollars (1,750 euros) to treat one of the "rare teams that got lost by showing up with him in the White House".
The president also took the opportunity to make a sexist joke in the best taste, saying "that he had preferred to buy burgers rather than asking his wife, Melania Trump (as well as the wife of the vice president , Mike Pence), to prepare salads ”. The First Lady will appreciate.
