MAGADonald’s? Trump campaign is selling t-shirts off fast-food visit
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump isn't done taking your order as the final days of the 2024 campaign are turning into a fast food fight with many Americans still stressed over how much it costs to eat.
After creating a viral moment on Sunday by sporting an apron and working as a fry cooker at a McDonald's in Pennsylvania, the former president's campaign is now selling "MAGADonald's" t-shirts.
"I have a McGift for you!" the campaign's online gift shop says above a t-shirt featuring a photo of Trump leaning out a drive-thru window.
The visit was called a stunt by some critics, but it was part of a larger effort by the Trump campaign to undermine Vice President Kamala Harris and her appeals to working-class and middle-class voters, specifically how she emphasized working at the $225 billion fast food chain in college.
Trump mocked his Democratic rival, for instance, suggesting without evidence that she never worked at a McDonald's.
"I'm looking for a job, and I always wanted to work at McDonald's. I never did," he said in a video posted on X.
The former president's campaign also connected their t-shirts to voter's frustration with lingering price hikes and criticized Harris over inflation under the Biden administration saying, "prices for a meal are through the roof" as a result of their policies.
An October survey by Swiftly, a Seattle-based retail technology company, found about 70% of U.S. adults said they are struggling to afford groceries. Roughly 64% said grocery store prices and inflation will be, "major factors in deciding" who they vote for this year.
Overall, inflation hit a three-year low in September according to the Labor Department's consumer price index with grocery prices kicking up by about 0.4%. Experts point out food and energy cost are more volatile than other products. The cost of eggs, for example, shot up by 8.4% amid a two-year bird flu outbreak.
The Harris campaign has clapped back by calling out how Trump has dodged questions on supporting a minimum wage hike. In 2019, while running for president the first time, Harris visited a McDonald's in Nevada calling for Congress to pass a $15 hourly wage.
Harris' team also called attention to how as president, Trump's labor department sided with fast food companies over workers when it came to violating wage rules.
"Vice President Harris and I grew up middle class, we understand that. She actually worked in a McDonald's," Harris' running mate, Tim Walz, said recently during an appearance on The View.
"She didn't go and pander and disrespect McDonald's workers by standing there in your red tie and take a picture," the Minnesota governor added. "His policies are the ones that undermine those very workers that were in that McDonald's, whether it's home ownership, health care, reproductive rights or cost of products."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: MAGADonald’s? Trump looks to capitalize off viral fast-food visit