Big (Mac) Spender! Trump’s campaign has spent a whopping amount on fast food - here’s the breakdown
Donald Trump’s campaign’s huge spending at fast food outlets has been revealed - and the president is clearly lovin’ it.
Between January 2023 and September 20, 2024, the Republican nominee’s campaign spent a whopping $31,000 at McDonald’s, according to the Washington Post.
The outlet reviewed FEC filings for federal candidates in that period. In total, filings showed $35,900 was spent at McDonald’s, meaning the Trump campaign made up for 86 percent of all candidates’ spending at the chain in that time frame.
Trump’s admiration for McDonald’s isn’t new, with two of his former aides revealing his typical meal in a 2017 book: “two Big Macs, two Fillet-O-Fish and a chocolate malt.” The former president also famously ordered McDonald’s to the White House as he welcomed Clemson University’s football team after their win in the College Football Playoff National Championship amid a government shutdown.
But it wasn’t only Big Macs and McFlurries that Republicans have been chowing down on. The entire GOP operation also spent $200,000 Chick-Fil-A, roughly 20 times more than Democrats, The Post’s analysis found. The Biden-Harris campaign, meanwhile, specifically spent over $7,000 at Panera Bread, topping the list of fast-casual restaurants visited by the Democratic team, according to the outlet.
Republican campaigns spent 18 times as much as Democrats fast-food restaurants.
Democrats may not be visiting fast-food joints as often, but it doesn’t mean they don’t want their food quickly. Democrats outspent the GOP by about $80,000 by getting their grub delivered on apps like Uber Eats and DoorDash.
The Post also found that there was a partisan divide over cuisines. Democrats frequented Mexican, Spanish and Chinese food, while Republicans spent more than twice as much as Democrats on BBQ.
Campaigns on both sides of the aisle seem to equally enjoy Italian, French and, of course, American food.
All in all, the Post’s analysis looked at a total of 21,000 receipts worth a collective $13 million.
McDonald’s has been mentioned several times on the campaign trail, with Trump often refusing to believe that Harris worked there.
The vice president repeatedly mentioned her time working at McDonald’s before her first law job in the 1980s. If elected in November, she’d make history as the first US president to have worked at the fast-food restaurant.
On August 31, she posted on X: “Two middle-class kids. One, a daughter of Oakland, California, who was raised by a working mother and had a summer job at McDonald’s.”
Later that day, he took to Truth Social to write: “Comrade Kamala Harris lied about working at McDonald’s. SHE NEVER WORKED THERE, they think she’s ‘nuts.’”
Weeks later, he repeated the accusation. “She never worked at McDonalds, it’s a lie,” Trump declared at a California rally. “She said she stood over those french fries when they were being fried, and it was so tough work.”