Trump does McDonald's, lauds golfer's genitals

Donald Trump serves fries at a McDonald's in Feasterville, Pennsylvania

(Image credit: Doug Mills-Pool / Getty Images)

published 21 October 2024

What happened

Donald Trump spent the weekend in Pennsylvania, putting on an apron for a campaign stop at a McDonald's in suburban Philadelphia Sunday and kicking off a speech in Latrobe on Saturday with "an off-color remark about a famous golfer's penis size and a coarse insult about Vice President Kamala Harris," The New York Times said. Harris spent much of Sunday, her 60th birthday, with Stevie Wonder at Black churches in Georgia to help get "souls to the polls" in the critical swing state.

"Arnold Palmer was all man," Trump said in his 12-minute comments on the late golfer. "When he took the showers with other pros, they came out of there. They said, 'Oh my God. That's unbelievable.'" Trump's "crude and vulgar remarks," delivered "17 days before the election in a critical battleground state, added to the impression" that he is "increasingly unfiltered and undisciplined" in the final stretch, the Times said. Trump's "ribald tribute" to Palmer, The Wall Street Journal said, was part of his "unconventional" mix of "humor" and "crude talk that plays to his most ardent backers, particularly men."

At the McDonald's in Feasterville, closed for his visit, Trump spent about five minutes making fries and "about 15 minutes at the drive-through window," The Washington Post said, talking to reporters and handing out bags to prescreened motorists who took "whatever Trump gave them." Trump appeared to have fun, but his visit "mostly served to underscore the obvious," Jacob Gallagher said at the Times: that the born-wealthy billionaire "exists in a vastly different class" than "someone working a service job to get by."

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.