No, the billionaire and former president is not one of them in a McDonald's uniform. But he relates to them, Hogan Gidley, of the America First Policy Institute and a former Trump staffer, said on American Family Radio Tuesday.
“He is so natural," Gidley told show host Jenna Ellis. "When you watch him stand there and talk to those folks, he didn't know what they were going to say, he didn't know what they were going to do, but he can communicate with everyday Americans with ease."
Trump's 30-minute McDonald's stop in a swing state, Pennsylvania, has gotten a lot of play, much of it negative in the unhappy liberal media still complaining about a "staged" political event. But it wasn’t Trump’s only recent effort at spending more personable time with voters.
Before attending a charity dinner last week in New York, he engaged black men at a barber shop in the Bronx.
Dial back a few months, and there was Trump buying customers’ chicken and milk shakes in a surprise stop at an Atlanta-area Chick-Fil-A.
“That’s why people like him. That's why people want to vote for him because of his authenticity," Gidley observed. "They don't agree with everything he says necessarily. They may agree with all the policy, they may not like some of the bombast or the rhetoric, but the fact is the man is relatable in a way that is baffling to so many because he's a billionaire businessman from New York, but in those moments you get to see him at his best.”
Amidst media protests about Trump's staged fry cooking and drive-thru work, the same liberal media was silent about Harris' own political fakery. Back in August, the Harris campaign booted real customers from a famous Pittsburgh diner, Primanti Brothers, to stage a fake visit. Her campaign then filled the restaurant with fake customers for her fake meet and greet.
Two important results for Trump
Trump working a McDonald’s fry machine, then handing over bags of food to surprised customers, served two very important purposes, wrote Piers Morgan in an op-ed for The New York Post.
First, it reminded voters that Kamala Harris has claimed, more than once, to have worked at a McDonald’s in her past.
That was Harris’ own effort to connect with voters and validate her self-proclaimed middle class upbringing.
The problem, Morgan says, is that her McDonald’s employment can’t be verified, especially strange given the incredible specifics the Harris campaign has provided about that job.
In that way, Trump’s trolling stunt brings into question the honesty of Harris, who has repeatedly questioned the honesty of Trump.
The second important purpose “is because McDonald’s is about the purest personification imaginable of the American free market dream — a place where everyone can afford to eat, and equally, where everyone has a shot at potentially running a McDonald’s franchise one day,” Morgan wrote.
Also, the McDonald’s $5 combo meal introduced earlier this year – many other restaurants have since offered their own money-saving combo deals – illustrates the high prices that have occurred since he left office.
Relatability helps, but Trump hopes the economy point drives home with the drive-thru customers.
“It shows you the cost-of-living increases under the Joe Biden-Kamala Harris administration. The decisions that she has made really have gone to make our lives so much worse,” Gidley said.
Harris, meanwhile, ignores the suffering.
“Kamala looks around and acts as though all of these things are just happening to her, like she's just an innocent bystander, like she hasn't been the vice president for four years. These things are happening because of her. These are her policies, her signature, her vote that gave us the high prices for gas and groceries, her decisions that opened the border, not by accident, but by design,” Gidley said.
Gallup: Economy is top concern
A Gallup poll released earlier this month shows the economy as the No. 1 issue. Fifty-two percent of voters considered it extremely important.
The state of democracy in the U.S. is second at 49% followed by terrorism/national security and Supreme Court justice picks both at 45 and immigration at 41.
Abortion, a major talking point for Democrats, is farther down the list at No. 9, considered extremely important by 37% of respondents.
The immigration and terrorism/national security categories could be interpreted as how respondents rank border security.
Among the 22 questions posed in the survey, Nos. 21 and 22 were two more key Democrat talking points, climate and transgender rights.
Putting the Harris campaign on defense
The McDonald’s stop was a big winner for Trump, Gidley said.
“When you watch the Left in full meltdown over this, you watch the media in full meltdown, it’s not because this event was a failure, it’s because this event was a success," he argued. "If Kamala Harris had set the same thing up for her campaign to do and had it on the calendar for a year, she still couldn't have pulled off what Donald Trump pulled off in this moment.”
Not only did Trump connect with people, but he also put his opponent on defense.
“There are all kinds of problems with his (McDonald’s) claim by Kamala Harris,” Gidley said. “It puts the spotlight on a bad economy and a bad candidate.”
