The president treated the college football champion Clemson Tigers to a dinner to remember: pizza, more than 300 burgers from McDonald's and Wendy's, and "lots and lots" of French fries. It was a dinner fit for a president distinguished by his professed love of fast food and his efforts to relax health food standards.
With no cooks at the White House due to the federal government shutdown, President Donald Trump treated the champion Clemson Tigers to 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 it all. I like it all," Trump told reporters. "It's all good, great American food."
Trump's assumption that this "would be his favorite food" says more about his tastes than anything else. His explanation also shows how Trump sees his love of junk food as a sign of patriotism and as an ode to a more carefree past, when the health ravages caused by junk food were not a concern.
When pressed by a reporter on whether he preferred McDonalds or Wendy's, Trump elaborated:
"If it's American, I like it. It's all American stuff... But they're good stuff 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 we're going to let them see them. But I bet you, the food we have, we have pizzas, we have 300 hamburgers, lots and lots of fries, all our favorite foods. I want to see what's here when we leave, because I don't think it's going to be much. The reason we did this is because of the shutdown. We want to make sure everything is good, so we sent, we got this. And we have some wonderful people who work in the White House. They helped us with this."
Clemson Tigers coach Jeff Scott tweeted a photo he captioned: "Presidential Dinner #OnASilverPlatter"
The Junk Food President
Some have Asked, if the White House cooks aren't working because of the shutdown, why not pay them to cook a dinner more worthy of the occasion? Trump also owns a hotel a few blocks away, so why not bring in those cooks? The hotel also houses a steakhouse, a sushi restaurant, and a lounge bar that serves 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 that you're a fast food guy too, that you sometimes take fast food on your plane. When you go to McDonald's, what does Donald Trump order?"
The then-candidate replied, "The 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 past presidents, on this point from many.
"In an era of gourmet meals and an obsession with healthy ingredients, Mr. Trump harks back to a more carefree past in American food, when no one bothered to ask whether the tomatoes were grown locally, and the first lady certainly didn't have a garden, complete with a beehive, 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 with Trump's aesthetic: silver platters and packets of tomato sauce, pizza reheated by candlelight. While it's a shocking image, it's in fact very much in line with what Trump represents. The president built his campaign on trying to reach out to "ordinary people," who seek luxury but retain a taste for the simple, the greasy, the sweet and the salty, even if it's 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 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 diet high in fat and carbohydrates wreaked havoc on public health.
That was a past when fast food was “everyone’s favorite,” as Trump said, but it’s mostly a favorite of kids. It’s a choice that some will see as simple and commonplace, and others will see as childish and irresponsible.
We can actually know how unhealthy Monday’s presidential banquet was: The Washington Post determined, thanks to CalorieKing, how many calories were in the room: about 310,000, excluding sauces and dressings, and 16,000 grams of fat.
And it’s not just in his personal tastes that Trump embraces the less healthy food. This is a president who also overturned former first lady Michelle Obama’s healthier standards for school cafeteria food. Gone are the days when the first lady maintained a White House garden complete with a beehive.
To be fair, former President Barack Obama was also a known burger lover, even though he played basketball and worked out regularly. The former first lady herself, who also organized the “Let’s Move” campaign, confessed to her “obsession with fries.” Michelle Obama actually visited Washington’s Shake Shack when it first opened and ordered the ShackBurger with fries, a milkshake and a Diet Coke. The difference? “Splurging is the key to life,” she said, when you normally exercise and eat right, things we know Trump doesn’t do.
