McDonald's on a silver platter: what does the White House junk food banquet say about Trump?
The president hosted the college football champion Clemson Tigers with a dinner to remember: pizza, more than 300 McDonald's and Wendy's hamburgers, 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 healthy eating standards.
Short of cooks in the White House due to the federal government shutdown, President Donald Trump rewarded the champion Clemson Tigers with fast food. The menu? "McDonald's, Wendy's and Burger King with a little 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 taste than anything else. His explanation also shows how Trump sees his love of junk food as a display of patriotism and an ode to a more carefree past, when the health ravages of 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, 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 them. But I bet you, the food that we have, we have pizzas, we have 300 hamburgers, lots and lots of fries, all of our favorite foods. I want to see what's here when we leave, because I don't think I'm going to It's going to be a lot. The reason we did this is because of the shutdown. We want to make sure everything is okay, so we sent, we got this. And we have some wonderful people who work at the White House. They helped us with this."
Clemson Tigers coach Jeff Scott tweeted a photo titled "Presidential Dinner #InSilverBand"
The Junk Food President
Some have wondered, if the White House cooks aren't working due to the shutdown, why not pay them to cook one more dinner to rise to the occasion? Trump also owns a hotel a few blocks away, so 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?
Part of it is because he genuinely likes junk food, as he has made clear on several occasions. At a February 2016 CNN townhall, Anderson Cooper asked him, "I understand you're a fast food guy too, sometimes bringing fast food on your plane. When you go to McDonald's, what does Donald Trump order?"
The then-candidate replied, "Fish Delight sometimes. [audience laughter] Big Macs are great, Quarter Pounders with cheese."
A 2016 New York Times profile of Trump's eating habits sheds light on how he differs from previous presidents on this point of many.
"In an era of gourmet dining and an obsession with healthy ingredients, Mr. Trump returns 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."
The images of the fast food banquet that Trump served in the White House
"Make America Great Again"
There's also a lot to be said for how this dinner fits in with the Trump aesthetic: silver trays and ketchup packets, pizza reheated by candlelight. Although it is a shocking image, in fact it is 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 greasy, 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 going back to an America where coal mining factories proliferated and few cared about the effects on the environment, pregnant women could smoke without being judged and the traditional high-fat, high-carbohydrate diet wreaked havoc on public health. .
That was a past when fast food was "everyone's favorite," as Trump put it, but it's mostly a kids' favorite. It is a choice that some will see as simple and common, and others will see as childish and irresponsible.
In fact, we can tell just how unhealthy Monday's presidential banquet was: The Washington Post determined, thanks to CalorieKing, how many calories were in the room: roughly 310,000, excluding sauces and dressings, and 16,000 grams of fat.
And it's not just his personal tastes that Trump embraces less healthy food. This is a president who also overturned the healthier standards that former first lady Michelle Obama had imposed for food in school cafeterias. Gone are the days when the first lady maintained a White House garden complete with a hive of bees.
To be fair, former President Barack Obama was also a known burger lover, though he played basketball and worked out regularly. The same former first lady, who also organized the "Let's Move" campaign, confessed her "obsession with French fries." Michelle Obama actually visited the Washington Shake Shack when it first opened and ordered the ShackBurger with fries, a milkshake and a Diet Coke. The difference? "Splurge is the key to life," she said, when you normally exercise and eat right, things we know Trump doesn't do.
