International Courant
FEASTERVILLE-TREVOSE, Pa. — FEASTERVILLE-TREVOSE, Pa. (AP) — Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump manned the fry station at a McDonald’s in Pennsylvania on Sunday earlier than internet hosting an impromptu information convention and answering questions by the drive-thru window.
As reporters and aides watched, an aide confirmed Trump dipping baskets of fries in oil, salting the fries and boxing them with a shovel. Trump, a famous fan of quick meals and a infamous germophobe, expressed shock that he did not have to the touch the fries along with his fingers.
“It truly requires nice experience to do it nicely and rapidly,” Trump mentioned with a smile, tucking away his go well with jacket and sporting an apron over his shirt and tie.
The go to got here as he tried to refute Democratic candidate Kamala Harris’s tales concerning the marketing campaign to work for the Democratic candidate quick meals chain throughout my researchan expertise that Trump has claimed – with out offering proof – by no means occurred.
A big crowd lined the road outdoors the restaurant in Feasterville-Trevose, a part of Bucks County, a key voting space north of Philadelphia. Later Sunday, Trump attended a night city corridor in Lancaster earlier than attending the Pittsburgh Steelers’ house sport in opposition to the New York Jets.
After handing out baggage of takeout meals to individuals within the drive-thru lane, Trump, nonetheless sporting his apron, leaned out the window to reply questions from the media stationed outdoors. The previous president, who has persistently promoted falsehoods about his 2020 election loss, mentioned he would respect the result of subsequent month’s election “if it’s a honest election.”
When one other reporter requested Sunday what the message was for Harris on her sixtieth birthday, Trump mentioned, “I might say, Congratulations, Kamala,” including, “I believe I am going to get her some flowers.”
He later joked, “Wasn’t {that a} unusual place to have a press convention?”
Trump has centered in current weeks on the summer season job Harris mentioned she had in school, the place she labored on the money register and made fries at McDonald’s whereas she was in school. Trump says the vp “lied about his work” there, however has supplied no proof to make that declare.
“If Trump feels determined, the one factor he can do is lie,” Harris marketing campaign spokesman Ian Sams mentioned on Sunday. “He cannot perceive what it is wish to have a summer season job as a result of he was handed thousands and thousands on a silver platter, solely to have it screwed up.”
In an interview final month on MSNBC, the vp pushed again on Trump’s claims, saying she labored on the fast-food chain 40 years in the past when she was nonetheless in school.
“A part of the rationale I discuss working at McDonald’s is as a result of there are individuals who work at McDonald’s in our nation and are attempting to lift a household,” she mentioned. “I labored there as a pupil.”
Harris additionally mentioned, “I believe a part of the distinction between me and my opponent entails our perspective on the wants of the American individuals and what our accountability is to fulfill these wants.”
Trump has lengthy gone after opponents primarily based on their private historical past, particularly ladies and racial minorities.
Earlier than operating for president, Trump was a number one voice of the “birther” conspiracy that baselessly claimed that President Barack Obama was from Africa, was not a U.S. citizen and subsequently ineligible to develop into president. Trump used it to lift his personal political profile, demanding to see Obama’s beginning certificates and 5 years after Obama did so, Trump lastly admitted that Obama was born in america.
Throughout his first run for president, Trump repeated a tabloid’s claims that Texas Sen. Ted Cruz’s father, who was born in Cuba, had ties to President John F. Kennedy’s murderer, Lee Harvey Oswald. Cruz and Trump battled for the occasion’s 2016 nomination.
In January this yr, when Trump confronted Nikki Haley, his former UN ambassador, within the Republican primaries, he shared a put up on his social media with false claims that Haley’s dad and mom weren’t residents when she was born, leaving her out of was eligible. be president.
Haley is the South Carolina-born daughter of Indian immigrants, making her an automated native-born citizen and assembly the constitutional necessities to run for president.
And Trump has continued to advertise baseless claims all through this marketing campaign. Trump mentioned throughout his presidential debate with Harris that immigrants who had settled in Springfield, Ohio, have been consuming residents’ pets — a declare he steered in an interview Saturday was nonetheless true though he couldn’t verify it.
Police closed the busy streets across the McDonald’s throughout Trump’s go to. Authorities cordoned off the restaurant as a crowd gathered for a number of blocks, typically as deep as ten to fifteen toes, throughout the road and strained to catch a glimpse of Trump. There have been horns and music blaring as Trump supporters waved flags, held indicators and took photographs.
John Waters, of close by Fairless Hills, had by no means been to a Trump rally and had hoped to see the previous president so near his house after lacking different close by rallies.
“Once I drove up, all these vehicles, unbelievable, I assumed, ‘He is right here, he is coming, he have to be coming with all that visitors,’” Waters mentioned.
Trump is especially keen on McDonald’s Massive Macs and Filet-o-Fish sandwiches. He has usually talked about how he trusts massive chains greater than smaller eating places as a result of they’ve a giant popularity to uphold, and the previous president’s employees usually picks up and serves McDonald’s on his aircraft.
Barrett Marson, a Republican strategist in Arizona, mentioned utilizing a marketing campaign go to to give attention to McDonald’s claims from 4 a long time in the past is a “puzzling detour” however that Trump “won’t draw back from placing one thing on the wall.” throw it to see if it sticks.”
“When Donald Trump is not speaking concerning the economic system and unlawful immigration, he is off subject concerning the issues individuals care about,” Marson mentioned.
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Related Press author Will Weissert in Washington contributed to this report.
Trump works on the chip store and holds a drive-thru press convention at McDonald’s
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