President Trump, looking to tout his economic record, returns to McDonald’s

President Trump praised McDonald’s Extra Value Meals strategy. | Photo courtesy of McDonald’s.

Seeking to highlight his economic record amid mounting concerns about inflation, President Donald Trump on Monday returned to one of the places that provided a peak moment of his last campaign: McDonald’s.

Speaking to a group of franchisees and corporate leaders at the McDonald’s Investment Summit on Monday, Trump delivered a 49-minute, campaign-style speech. He boasted about his own record on a wide range of topics, from immigration to the tax cuts in the Big Beautiful Bill to bombing Iran’s nuclear sites to eliminating regulations on gas stoves.

He spent a lot of time bashing Democrats, particularly former President Joe Biden, and said, “You would have had a catastrophe” if Democrat Kamala Harris had won the last election. “You are so damn lucky I won that election,” he said. 

But Trump was there largely to focus on the economy and inflation. Consumer concerns about inflation have hit restaurants hard, including McDonald’s, where soaring menu prices led to falling traffic, stagnant sales and thinning operator profit margins. More Americans disapprove of his handling of the economy, by 14.5 percentage points on average, according to a compilation by the website Real Clear Polling. 

Arguably Trump’s biggest moment in the 2024 campaign came when he spent some time “working” at a Philadelphia McDonald’s, handing out fries to predetermined customers. Trump recalled that event on Monday, joking that he was “the very first former McDonald’s fry cook to become president of the United States.” 

“It was a commercial. You got it for nothing,” he said, noting that McDonald’s “in the old days paid me millions of dollars” to do commercials for the company. “As president I’m doing this damn thing for nothing.”

“As usual, you made a good deal,” he said.

Trump praised McDonald’s recent strategy of cutting prices on combo meals, bringing back the Extra Value Meals moniker in the process, citing that as progress in his efforts to fight inflation. 

He praised the company for “recommitting to affordable options for items Americans know and love” and said “there’s no better leader and advocate” for affordable food options than McDonald’s.

“Prices at McDonald’s are going down,” he said. 

Trump blamed inflation on the Biden Administration and said that he is working to bring prices down further. “Nobody has done what we’ve done on pricing,” Trump said. “We took over a mess. We had the highest inflation in the history of our country. Now we have normal inflation. We’ve normalized it. But we’re going to get it a little bit lower.”

Throughout the speech, Trump boasted about his love for McDonald’s. He called himself “one of your all-time, most loyal customers.” 

“I even got (Health and Human Services Secretary) Bobby Kennedy to eat a Big Mac,” Trump joked. 

Trump called McDonald’s “Americana,” noting the chain’s role in feeding people quickly in the U.S. and worldwide, noting that one in eight Americans at one point worked at the company’s restaurants, and praising operators for choosing to invest in the brand.

He also noted his role in clarifying the so-called “joint employer” definition that has been widely criticized in franchise circles for making franchisors jointly liable for the employment decisions made by franchisees. That regulation has routinely come under question depending on the political affiliation of the current president, dating back more than a decade.

“You are so fricking lucky,” he said. “These guys are so loaded that they don’t know what I did for them. You should have suffered for a little while under Kamala. They were destroying your businesses.” 

Trump touted some of the tax law changes in the “Big Beautiful Bill,” such as one allowing for 100% bonus depreciation on certain business properties, which has been praised by business groups like the National Restaurant Association and the International Franchise Association. 

But he also brought up the “no taxes on tips” provision in the bill, along with no taxes on overtime or social security. The elimination of taxes on some tips, however, ran afoul of McDonald’s, whose CEO Chris Kempczinski criticized the move, with the backing of some franchisees. 

That led McDonald’s to end its membership in the restaurant association and risked the company’s relationship with the president. But on Monday, at least, that issue didn’t seem to matter. 

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Restaurant Business Editor-in-Chief Jonathan Maze is a longtime industry journalist who writes about restaurant finance, mergers and acquisitions and the economy, with a particular focus on quick-service restaurants.

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