McDonald's on a silver platter: What does the White House junk food banquet say about Trump?
The president welcomed the college football champions Clemson Tigers with a dinner to remember: pizza, more than 300 hamburgers from McDonald's and Wendy's, and "many, many" French fries. It was a dinner fit for a president distinguished by his avowed love of fast food and his efforts to relax the standards of healthy food.
In the absence of cooks in the White House due to the federal government shutdown, President Donald Trump awarded the champion Clemson Tigers with fast food. The menu? "McDonald's, Wendy's and Burger King with some pizza," Trump told reporters at the White House.
"I think that would be his favorite food, so we'll see what happens ... I like everything. I like everything," Trump told reporters. "It's all good, great American food."
That Trump assumed this "would be his favorite food" says more about his tastes than anything else. His explanation also shows how Trump views his love of junk food as a display of patriotism and as an ode to a more carefree past, when the ravages to health caused by junk food were not thought of.
When pressed by a reporter to answer whether he preferred McDonalds or Wendy's, Trump elaborated:
"If it's American, I like it. It's all American stuff ... But it's good and we have the national champion, as you know, Clemson Tigers. And they had a fantastic game against Alabama and they're all here. They're right outside the room and I think. That we're going to let them see it. But I bet you, the food we have, we have pizzas, we have 300 burgers, many, many fries, all of our favorite foods. I want to see what's in here when we leave, because I don't think I'll go. to be a lot. The reason we did this is because of the closure. We want to make sure everything is okay, so we shipped, we got this. And we have some wonderful people that work in the White House. They helped us with this. "
Clemson Tigers coach Jeff Scott tweeted a photo with the headline: "Presidential Dinner #EnBandejaDePlata"
Presidential dinner 🏆#silverplatter pic.twitter.com/v06KT5Svok
— Coach Jeff Scott (@coach_jeffscott) January 14, 2019
The junk food president
Some have wondered, if the White House cooks are not working due to the shutdown, why not pay them to cook one more dinner worthy of the occasion? Trump also owns a hotel a few blocks from the place, why not bring those cooks? The hotel also houses a steakhouse, a sushi restaurant and a lounge bar serving champagne and fine cheeses. Why not hire any of those options?
Partly it's because he genuinely likes junk food, as he has made clear on several occasions. In a February 2016 CNN townhall, Anderson Cooper asked him, "I understand that you are a fast food guy too, sometimes bringing fast food to your plane. When you go to McDonald's, what does Donald Trump order?"
The then-candidate replied, "The Fish Delight sometimes. [Audience laughs] Big Macs are great, Quarter Pounders with cheese."
A 2016 New York Times profile on Trump's eating habits clarifies how he differs from previous presidents, on this point from many.
"In an era of gourmet foods and obsession with healthy ingredients, Mr. Trump reverts to a more carefree past in American food, when no one bothered to ask if tomatoes were locally grown, and the first lady certainly didn't have a garden. , complete with a hive of bees, on the South Lawn of the White House. "
"Make America Great Again"
There's also a lot to be said for how this dinner fits the Trump aesthetic: silver platters and ketchup packets, pizza reheated by candlelight. Although it is a shocking image, it is in fact very much in line with what Trump represents. The president built his campaign trying to reach "common people", who seek luxury but keep a taste for the simple, the fatty, sweet and salty, even if it is not healthy.
Wanting to return to that "more carefree past" is one of the pillars of the philosophy behind his campaign and his agenda as president, to "make America great again." It is about returning to a United States where coal mining factories proliferated and few cared about the effects on the environment, pregnant women could smoke without being judged and the traditional diet high in fat and carbohydrates was ravaging public health .
That was a past when fast food was "everyone's favorite," as Trump put it, but it's mostly a children's favorite. It is a choice that some will see as simple and ordinary, and others will see as childish and irresponsible.
In fact, we can know how unhealthy Monday's presidential banquet was: The Washington Post determined, thanks to CalorieKing, how many calories were in the room: approximately 310,000, excluding sauces and dressings, and 16,000 grams of fat.
And it's not just his personal tastes that Trump accepts less healthy food. This is a president who also overturned the healthier rules that former first lady Michelle Obama had imposed for school cafeteria food. Gone are the days when the first lady kept a garden in the White House complete with a hive of bees.
To be fair, former President Barack Obama was also a known hamburger lover, although he played basketball and trained regularly. The former first lady herself, who also organized the "Let's Move" campaign, confessed to "her obsession with French fries." Michelle Obama actually visited the Washington Shake Shack when she first opened and ordered the ShackBurger with fries, a smoothie, and a Diet Coke. The difference? "Splurging is the key to life," she said, when you normally exercise and eat well, things we know Trump doesn't do.
