Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump works behind the counter during a visit to McDonalds in Feasterville-Trevose, Pennsylvania, U.S. October 20, 2024.
Doug Mills | Via Reuters
Though President Donald Trump visited a Pennsylvania McDonald’s location on Sunday, the fast-food giant is trying to stay neutral in the presidential race.
“As we’ve seen, our brand has been a fixture of conversation in this election cycle. While we’ve not sought this, it’s a testament to how much McDonald’s resonates with so many Americans. McDonald’s does not endorse candidates for elected office and that remains true in this race for the next President,” the company said in an internal message viewed by CNBC and confirmed by a source familiar with the matter.
Trump learned how to operate a fry cooker and work the drive-thru line during his short shift at a Feasterville, Pennsylvania, restaurant. He used the stunt as an opportunity to take more shots at his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris.
Trump often accuses Harris of lying about working at McDonald’s for a summer in her 20s, but has offered no proof backing up the claim. Harris has denied the accusation. McDonald’s and its franchisees don’t have all of their employment records for workers dating back to the early 1980s, when the 60-year-old Harris would have worked there, the company said in the Sunday memo.
“Though we are not a political brand, we’ve been proud to hear former President Trump’s love for McDonald’s and Vice President Harris’s fond memories working under the Arches,” McDonald’s said.
Both McDonald’s and the franchisee who operates the location emphasized that the chain opens its doors to “everyone.”
The photo shows a letter outside the McDonald’s verifying it was closed to the public at the time of Trump’s visit.
Lauren Mayk | NBC Philadelphia
“As a small, independent business owner, it is a fundamental value of my organization that we proudly open our doors to everyone who visits the Feasterville community,” franchisee Derek Giacomantonio said in a statement. “That’s why I accepted former President Trump’s request to observe the transformative working experience that 1 in 8 Americans have had: a job at McDonald’s.”
Although McDonald’s publicly supported the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020, it has tried to portray itself as an apolitical brand to avoid alienating customers. It follows a broader shift in Corporate America away from politics or initiatives perceived as ideological.
A number of companies, including Ford, Lowe’s and Harley-Davidson, have walked back their diversity, equity and inclusion policies and practices this year.
And that’s a change that many Americans want; only 38% of U.S. adults believe that businesses should take public stances, down from 48% in 2022, according to a Gallup-University of Bentley study conducted this spring.
But McDonald’s has already been involved with another controversy this election cycle.
In late May, several viral social media posts criticized the burger giant’s affordability, citing everything from an $18 Big Mac meal at a Connecticut location to charts that alleged the chain’s prices had more than doubled over the last five years. Republicans latched onto the controversy, tying a jump inMcDonald’s menu prices to Biden’s economic policy in a bid to win over voters fed up with inflation.
To quell the controversy, McDonald’s U.S. President Joe Erlinger wrote an open letter and released fact sheets about the company’s pricing.
Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump’s campaign stop at a McDonald’s in suburban Philadelphia on Sunday has sparked bemusement and bewilderment from onlookers. But the Golden Arches photo op was far from random: it represents the culmination of a yearslong fascination Trump has had with the fast food chain.
Trading in his suit jacket for a yellow-lined apron, Trump, in a branch in Feasterville-Trevose, Pa., took a turn at dunking baskets of fries in oil, salting them, and scooping them into boxes—the well-documented germaphobe expressed delight at how it “never touches the human hand”—and he handed bags of food to a few preselected customers through the drive-thru window. The play-acting at working came as Trump has fixated on Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris’ claim of a brief employment at McDonald’s in the 1980s—something Trump has refused to believe is true.
Trump appears adamant to shake any notion that his rival could have a stronger connection to a brand he’s so long adored and patronized—and a potent symbol of America’s working class.
“I love McDonald’s,” Trump said. “I like to see good jobs, and I think it’s inappropriate when somebody puts down all over the place that she worked at McDonald’s.”
In apparent effort to boost her working-class bona fides, Harris and her campaign have said she manned the register, the fry station, and the ice cream machine in an Alameda, Calif., McDonald’s in 1983 during a summer while she was in college. “She’s a liar,” Trump has repeatedly argued on the campaign trail, with scant evidence (allies have pointed to a résumé that makes no mention of McDonald’s). “Birtherism, meet burgerism,” summed the New York Times in a recent story about the candidate who has a long history of questioning the biographies of his opponents. Trump, while at the drive-thru window on Sunday, said, “I’ve now worked for 15 minutes more than Kamala.”
The fast food chain has become a strange point of competition for the Trump campaign. Speaking to Fox News last week, Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr. said his father “knows the McDonald’s menu much better than Kamala Harris ever did.” That may actually be true given the public evidence of just how much he enjoys their food. In early 2023, Trump himself said the same thing to McDonald’s staffers in East Palestine, Ohio—“I know this menu better than you do”—before buying meals for frontline responders to the hazardous chemical accident caused by a train derailment in the area.
Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, wrote in his 2022 memoir Breaking History that when his father-in-law contracted COVID-19 in 2020, ordering in from the fast food chain signaled that he was on the way to recovery. “I knew he was feeling better when he requested one of his favorite meals: a McDonald’s Big Mac, Filet-o-Fish, fries and a vanilla shake,” Kushner wrote. Former Trump campaign officials Corey Lewandowski and David Bossie said in their 2017 book Let Trump be Trump that the former President’s go-to McDonald’s order consisted of “two Big Macs, two Fillet-O-Fish and a chocolate malted [shake].”
In 2017, Politico reported that during Trump’s 2016 campaign, his former bodyguard and confidante Keith Schiller would routinely go to the McDonald’s near the Marine Air Terminal in Queens while Trump waited in the limousine. “Egg McMuffins were often the order in the morning, or two quarter-pounders and a large fries later in the day,” Politico reported, citing another unnamed former aide. The report also said Schiller would make fast food runs down Washington D.C.’s New York Avenue if “the White House kitchen staff couldn’t match the satisfaction of a quarter-pounder with cheese (no pickles, extra ketchup) and a fried apple pie.”
In October 2023, during Trump’s fraud trial in Manhattan, several large bags of McDonalds were hauled into court. And in 2019, on more than one occasion, Trump controversially catered McDonald’s meals for champion college athletes visiting the White House. In 2002, the billionaire even appeared in an ad for the McDonald’s dollar-menu.
As to why Trump loves McDonald’s—and fast food in general—so much, there are multiple, seemingly related explanations. In his 2018 book Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, author Michael Wolff said Trump “had a longtime fear of being poisoned.” When he ate at McDonald’s, Wolff relayed Trump’s thinking, “nobody knew he was coming and the food was safely premade.”
Trump, for his part, has justified his tastes by citing the standards of food preparation. “I’m a very clean person. I like cleanliness, and I think you’re better off going there than maybe someplace that you have no idea where the food’s coming from. It’s a certain standard,” Trump told CNN in a 2016 town hall. “One bad hamburger, you can destroy McDonald’s.”
McDonald’s is distancing itself from former President Donald Trump after his headline-grabbing stop at a Pennsylvania location, where he pretended to work during a closed event attended by pre-screened supporters.
McDonald’s is facing its first lawsuit from the Quarter Pounder E. coli outbreak
The fast food giant clarified that it did not facilitate Trump’s visit and “does not endorse candidates for elected office,” it confirmed to Quartz in an email. This principle remains true for the coming presidential race: “We are not red or blue — we are golden.”
The Feasterville franchise was closed to regular customers during Sunday’s staged photo opportunity. Individuals who went through the drive-thru were pre-selected by both the franchise and the local Trump campaign team. Vehicles were also screened and searched, as were those inside.
Read more: 7 times Trump dragged big brands into politics
Local franchisee Derek Giacomantonio received a request from law enforcement regarding Trump’s intention to visit the restaurant, which he indicated he planned to do a few weeks prior.
Giacomantonio, who started his career as a crew member nearly three decades ago, said that as a small, independent business owner it is fundamental “that we proudly open our doors to everyone who visits.” Roughly 95% of U.S. locations are independently owned and operated by franchisees.
At Trump’s visit, he served fries, worked the drive-thru, and briefly wished fellow presidential nominee Kamala Harris a happy birthday. Trump has previously made unfounded claims aimed at discrediting Harris’ assertion that she worked at the chain during the 1980s.
Since then, the fast-food giant has found itself at the center of the 2024 election discourse. With the election approaching and Pennsylvania viewed as a pivotal swing state, Trump has identified it as a key area of focus.
During his visit to the Feasterville McDonald’s, Trump remarked that he “wouldn’t mind this job” and that he “might come back and do it again.”
The fast-food giant said it has invited Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, to visit one of its restaurants to showcase how McDonald’s creates opportunities and supports local communities.
Read McDonald’s memo about Trump’s controversial visit: ‘We are not red or blue – we are golden’
Appearing at a Pennsylvania rally this evening, Donald Trump veered off into a story about Arnold Palmer that got into comments about the size of the late golfer’s private parts.
The moment came a bit too late in the day to be parodied on tonight’s Saturday Night Live, but it stood out on social media coverage of the Latrobe, PA event, held in the town where Palmer was born.
“Arnold Palmer was all man, and I say that in all due respect to women. And I love women. But this is a guy that was all man.”
“This man was strong and tough, but I refuse to say it but when he took the showers with the other pros, they came out of there. They said, ‘Oh my God. That’s unbelievable.’ I had to say it. We have women that are highly sophisticated here.”
The Trump campaign had signaled that the speech would give a preview of Trump’s closing argument. The former president’s off-script comments are typical parts of his rallies, but some of his recent events have had bizarre moments. Last week, after two medical emergencies in the crowd at a town hall event, Trump instead switched format and listened to recorded versions of Ave Maria three times and other songs on his campaign playlist. He stood on stage and swayed to the music as it was played for nearly 40 minutes.
The focus on penis size also came up during a Republican primary debate in 2016, when Marco Rubio, one of Trump’s rivals then, commented on his “small hands.” “You know what they say about men with small hands,” Rubio said. During his speech at the Democratic National Convention in August, former President Barack Obama made a hand gesture that referred to the size of Trump’s private part.
Palmer, one of the greatest golfers of all time, died in 2016.
Kamala Harris campaigned in Detroit at a rally with Lizzo, and later went to Atlanta, for an event where Usher was one of the speakers.
From the earliest days of her candidacy, one topic has loomed over Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential bid: her track record with criminal justice reform in the United States.
On Tuesday, Harris — the Democratic nominee for the presidency — had a chance to address some of the criticisms, in a town hall-style interview with radio host Charlamagne tha God.
It was also an opportunity for Harris, the former attorney general of California, to bolster support among the Black community.
While the vast majority of Black voters identify with the Democratic Party, recent polls show their backing for Harris is not as strong as in 2020, when fellow Democrat Joe Biden was running for president.
Harris took the offensive on Tuesday, very quickly steering the conversation towards correcting the record about her candidacy.
“Folks say you come off as very scripted,” Charlamagne began, in the first minute of their conversation. “They say you like to stick to your talking points —”
The vice president immediately jumped in. “That would be called discipline,” she quipped.
It was an apparent effort to draw a distinction between herself and her Republican rival Donald Trump, whose public appearances are often described as rambling.
Harris continued to give sharp rebuttals to criticisms of her public appearance as buttoned-up.
“What do you say to people who say you stay on the talking points?” Charlamagne asked.
“I would say, ‘You’re welcome,’” she replied.
Charlamagne tha God, co-host of iHeartMedia’s morning show The Breakfast Club, speaks to Kamala Harris in Detroit for a radio town hall [Jacquelyn Martin/AP Photo]
Prosecutor past under spotlight
A former prosecutor who became district attorney of San Francisco and then attorney general of California, Harris has long faced scrutiny for her approach to criminal justice.
On the campaign trail this election cycle, Harris’s allies have sought to leverage her background to the Democrat’s advantage, framing the race as a battle between “the prosecutor” and “the felon”.
Trump, after all, has 34 felony convictions to his name, after he was found guilty in May of falsifying business records in relation to a hush-money payment to an adult film actor.
Harris herself has leaned into that framing. On July 23, shortly after she launched her presidential campaign, Harris struck a contrast between herself and Trump, who faces a total of four criminal indictments.
“Before I was elected vice president, before I was elected United States senator, I was elected attorney general of the state of California, and I was a courtroom prosecutor before then,” Harris told a rally in Wisconsin.
“And in those roles, I took on perpetrators of all kinds: predators who abused women, fraudsters who ripped off consumers, cheaters who broke the rules for their own gain. So hear me when I say, I know Donald Trump’s type.”
But critics have blasted Harris for that same history as a prosecutor, with members of both the right and left slamming her policies.
Progressives, on one hand, have criticised her hard-handed approach to issues like student truancy: Harris famously championed a state law that would make parents eligible for a misdemeanour if their child were chronically absent from school without an excuse.
In 2014, Harris also opposed calls to implement an independent system to review the fatal use of force by police.
Critics at the time argued that local prosecutors work closely with police and are therefore unable to be objective when deciding whether to bring charges. Harris, however, said, “I don’t think it would be good public policy to take the discretion from elected district attorneys.”
Her opponents on the right, meanwhile, have accused Harris of being lax on crime and failing to adequately support law enforcement.
Decriminalising marijuana
In her interview with Charlamagne, Harris sought to tamp down on the criticism against her by branding it the product of right-wing misinformation.
“One of the biggest challenges that I face is mis- and dis-information,” Harris told the radio host. “And it’s purposeful. Because it is meant to convince people that they somehow should not believe that the work I have done has occurred and has meaning.”
Charlamagne, for his part, called on Harris to answer several rumours swirling around her campaign.
“One of the biggest allegations against you is that you targeted and locked up thousands of Black men in San Francisco for weed. Some said you did it to boost your career. Some said you did it out of pure hate for Black men,” he said, asking: “What are the facts of that situation?”
Harris refuted the allegations, replying, “It’s just simply not true.”
She then pivoted to her work on lowering penalties for marijuana possession, an issue that disproportionately affects Black men.
A 2020 analysis from the American Civil Liberties Union, for instance, found that Black people are 3.64 times more likely to be arrested for possessing the drug, compared to white people. The report, however, found no significant difference in marijuana use between the two populations.
That difference in arrest rates contributes to higher incarceration rates overall for Black men in the US. The Pew Research Center found that, in 2020, Black adults faced five times the rate of imprisonment as their white counterparts.
Referencing this discrepancy, Harris told Charlamagne that she would decriminalise marijuana on the federal level if elected president.
“My pledge is, as president, I will work on decriminalising it, because I know exactly how those laws have been used to disproportionately impact certain populations and specifically Black men,” she said on Tuesday.
Approximately 24 states have already taken steps to legalise small quantities of marijuana for recreational use. But on the federal level, the drug remains illegal, though the Biden administration has taken steps to lower penalties.
In May, for instance, Biden’s Justice Department initiated a new rule reclassifying marijuana as a “schedule III drug”, down from the highest rank under the Controlled Substances Act’s five-tier system.
That reclassification made the drug acceptable for medical use. It also indicated a shift in the government’s position, to acknowledge that marijuana is not as dangerous as the other drugs in its previous category, like heroin.
“As vice president, [I] have been a champion for bringing marijuana down on the schedule,” Harris told Charlamagne. “So instead of it being ranked up there with heroin, we bring it down.”
Charlamagne tha God pressed Vice President Harris about her commitment to the Black community in the US [Jacquelyn Martin/AP Photo]
Attacking Trump on ‘stop and frisk’
Harris not only defended her criminal justice work as “progressive”, but she also actively attacked her Republican rival Trump for policies she warned would be detrimental to the Black community.
Throughout his campaign, Trump has championed a crackdown on crime in the US, proposing policies that critics warn could increase the use of excessive force among law enforcement officers — and cause the violation of civil liberties.
Last month, for instance, Trump floated the idea of having “one real rough, nasty day” for law enforcement to address property crime without restraint.
He has also pledged to strengthen police immunity from prosecution and push for increased use of “stop and frisk” policies.
“You have to do a policy of stop and frisk,” Trump told the TV show Fox and Friends in August, envisioning a situation where a police officer recognises a suspect on the street. “Stop and frisk and take their gun away.”
While the US Constitution protects people from “unreasonable search and seizure”, advocates say “stop and frisk” policies allow the police to search suspects in an un-intrusive manner if they have a “reasonable suspicion” they may be armed or dangerous.
But critics warn that “stop and frisk” has been used to racially profile people and harass them without warrant or cause. Some “stop and frisk” policies have therefore been struck down as unconstitutional.
Harris zeroed in on Trump’s support for “stop and frisk” in Tuesday’s interview.
“My opponent”, she said, would have “a formalised stop and frisk policy, for which he has said, if a police department does not do it, they should be defunded”.
“There is so much at stake” this election, she added, pointing to the potential risks for the Black community, which has been disproportionately targeted by such policies.
Pressure on Harris
Harris’s appearance on the radio town hall with Charlamagne came one day after the Democratic candidate made another major overture to Black voters, releasing an “Opportunity Agenda for Black Men“.
That agenda outlined plans for decriminalising marijuana, promoting cryptocurrency and providing one million “forgivable” loans for Black entrepreneurs.
If elected, Harris would be the first woman — and the first person of mixed Black and South Asian descent — to win the White House.
But while she carries a majority of support among Black Americans, some pollsters see concern in how her numbers compare to the 2020 election. In that race, President Joe Biden carried 90 percent of Black votes, according to a survey from The New York Times and Siena College.
By contrast, only 76 percent of the Black electorate plan to vote for Harris, Biden’s vice president, in this year’s election. That’s a significant drop — and the poll showed even lower numbers among Black men.
Only 69 percent backed Harris, compared to 81 percent of Black women.
Trump has tried to make gains in that demographic — and he has even publicly questioned Harris’s identity as a Black woman.
During her town hall on Tuesday, Harris faced questions about her commitment to the Black community. One caller asked her about her “lack of engagement” with the Black church.
Harris refuted that claim too. She replied that she had grown up in the Black church.
“So first of all, that allegation is of course coming from the Trump team, because they are full of mis- and dis-information,” she said. “They are trying to disconnect me from the people I have worked with and that I am from, so they can try to have some advantage in this election.”
Vice President Kamala Harris told Fox News’ Bret Baier on Wednesday her presidency “will not be a continuation of Joe Biden’s presidency” if she wins next month, defending her record as vice president in a contentious interview with the longtime Fox host—her first-ever appearance on the network as the race remains razor-thin.
Harris speaks at a campaign event Wednesday before her interview with Baier airs. (AP … [+] Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Key Facts
At one point in the almost 30-minute conversation on Fox News’ “Special Report,” Baier asked Harris if anything came to mind that she would do differently from Biden if she were elected, after she said in a previous interview nothing “comes to mind,” prompting Harris to tell Baier she hasn’t spent most of her career in Washington, DC, and she would solicit ideas from Republicans and business leaders.
Later, Baier asked Harris if she had noticed a decline in Biden’s mental acuity, to which she defended Biden’s record but said “Joe Biden is not on the ballot … and Donald Trump is”—a recurring theme from the interview, as Harris often sought to direct the conversation toward Trump.
Harris and Baier kicked off the interview with a contentious discussion about immigration, a tough issue for Harris, with Harris largely avoiding criticizing Biden-era policies and attempting to steer the conversation toward former President Donald Trump and his attempts to kill a bipartisan border bill.
Harris told Baier she does not believe in decriminalizing border crossings, a reversal of her stance in 2019, when she told “The View” she was “in favor of saying that we’re not going to treat people who are undocumented [and] cross the borders as criminals.”
Harris, repeating a comment she has levied against Trump before, said the former president used the bill to boost his campaign and accused him of preferring to “run on a problem instead of fixing a problem.”
Harris also doubled down on her comments this week in which she called Trump “increasingly unstable,” deflecting a question from Baier about her potential presidency and blasting Trump as someone who is “unfit to serve.”
Baier and Harris talked over each other multiple times during the interview, creating tense exchanges that once led to Harris insisting she was “in the middle of responding to” a point that was raised by Baier.
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Key Background
Harris’ interview on Fox News comes after the vice president was criticized by Republicans for not agreeing to more interviews ahead of the election and taking interviews with sympathetic outlets like “The Howard Stern Show,” “The View” and “The Breakfast Club.” Harris also recently made an appearance on “60 Minutes.” Wednesday’s interview marked her first formal sit-down with the right-leaning media outlet. Harris spokesman Ian Sams told Vanity Fair’s “Inside the Hive” the Fox News interview would serve Harris well because of the network’s high ratings—it consistently out-rates CNN and MSNBC—and its share of viewers who are undecided voters. Sams also framed the interview as an opportunity for Harris to speak to viewers who he said are often “fed a bunch of crap” by Fox News, whose opinion hosts are frequent Harris critics and Trump defenders. Trump, for his part, has sat for several interviews on Fox News, but recently backed out of interviews with CNBC and CBS’ “60 Minutes.”
Will Harris Appear On Joe Rogan’s Podcast?
Harris is considering sitting for an interview with the “Joe Rogan Experience,” which is among the most popular U.S. podcasts, Reuters reported—another unlikely platform for the vice president.
Further Reading
Trump And Harris May Appear On Joe Rogan’s Podcast—Despite His Harsh Comments About Both (Forbes)
Both Vice President Kamala Harris and Former President Donald Trump are in discussions to appear on the top-ranked “Joe Rogan Experience” podcast in the waning days of the presidential campaign, according to reports, as both try to broaden their appeal to young men, though Rogan has made withering remarks about them.
JOE ROGAN QUESTIONS EVERYTHING — “Podcast” — Pictured: (l-r) Joe Rogan, Duncan Trussell — (Photo by: … [+] Vivian Zink/Syfy/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images)
NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images
Key Facts
In a July interview with political commentator Michael Malice, Rogan called Harris “the worst” and an unpopular vice president, said he was bothered to see her suddenly viewed as a “hero” and “solution,” wondered if she was medicated with anti-anxiety medications because of “disconnected ramblings,” but still said he thinks she will win the presidency because people think she’s a stronger alternative than Trump.
In a September interview with comedian Tom Segura, Rogan said, “whoever’s coaching her, whoever’s the puppet master running the strings” is doing a “f****** amazing job.”
In 2022, Rogan said to podcaster Lex Fridman that he’s “not a Trump supporter in any way, shape or form” and has “had the opportunity to have him on my show more than once” but said no each time because he doesn’t want to help him, explaining that his show can “revitalize and rehabilitate” their public image in a “shocking way.”
The “Joe Rogan Experience” has never hosted Trump on the podcast, and Rogan has been outspoken about the candidate, calling Trump a “polarizing figure” and “existential threat to democracy,” although Rogan — a staunch defender of free speech — has also defended Trump supporters and criticized the internet’s portrayal of Trump.
Both candidates have decided to forego traditional media interviews and instead targeted specific—and large—niche audiences through popular podcasts.
Rogan, whose podcast is the largest in the U.S., touts a large audience of young men—including a large Black audience—a coveted demographic for both candidates.
Which Podcasts Has Harris Appeared On?
Harris visited host Alex Cooper on the “Call Her Daddy” podcast, routinely ranked as Spotify’s second largest podcast next to Rogan’s and one of the 10 most popular podcasts for women, according to Edison Research. Cooper said the podcast has a “very mixed” political audience and typically does not discuss politics with its celebrity guests like Miley Cyrus or Post Malone. The episode with Harris episode now ranks as one of the most popular podcast episodes on Spotify. Harris also went on the “All the Smoke” podcast, hosted by former NBA stars in a growing segment of athlete podcasts that discuss sports and lifestyles. “All the Smoke” has hosted guests like Will Smith and Kobe Bryant and has more than one million followers on YouTube. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz — Harris’s vice presidential pick — went on the “Smartless” podcast, a high-ranking show hosted by comedians Will Arnett, Jason Bateman and Sean Hayes with several hundred thousand followers on Instagram and YouTube. “Smartless” has also hosted President Biden, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, among other Democrats.
Which Podcasts Has Trump Appeared On?
Trump’s media blitz included the “All In” podcast, a business and technology-focused with more than half a million followers on YouTube; Lex Fridman’s podcast, a high-ranking show with a strong male audience that has hosted Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg for its more than 4 million followers on YouTube; Theo Von’s podcast, which has hosted dozens of comedians and Sen. Bernie Sanders alike for its more than 3 million YouTube followers; YouTuber Logan Paul’s “Impaulsive” podcast, which caters to a male audience in its nearly 5 million YouTube followers by routinely hosting boxers and wrestlers; the “Full Send Podcast” from the YouTube stars called the “Nelk Boys,” who became popular among its nearly all-male audience of 8 million followers on YouTube for prank videos; and the “Flagrant” comedy podcast, which has more than 1 million followers and hosts guests ranging from actor Peter Dinklage to UFC’s Dana White. Trump has also appeared in a Kick.com live-stream for controversial internet personality Adin Ross, which was later posted to his YouTube audience of more than 4 million followers. Most recently, Trump appeared on a podcast hosted by former NFL players called “Bussin’ With The Boys” — owned by digital media company Barstool Sports, which caters to sports and college-culture — which has more than half a million followers on YouTube.
Tangent
Comedian Theo Von — who hosted Trump several weeks ago on his podcast — held a two-hour-long episode with billionaire Mark Cuban, who discussed his support of Harris. Von mentioned in the episode that the Harris campaign reached out for a possible episode.
Key Background
On Tuesday, Reuters reported that Harris’ campaign has been in touch with Rogan’s team, adding another popular podcast to her media blitz in the final days before the election. An interview with Rogan could boost Harris’ campaign as she looks to appeal to more male voters, an identified campaign goal. Trump has said he intends to go on the podcast, revealing last week in an interview with the “Nelk Boys” podcast that he has considered the move. The Twitter account for the “Joe Rogan Experience” has also hinted that Trump may be on the show, posting articles daily about Trump potentially being on the show and asking on X this Sunday if Trump should be a guest. Rogan, who stated he was not politically affiliated with the Republican party, said in early August that he liked Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as a person and a candidate, although he wasn’t endorsing his presidential bid. In 2020, the podcaster shared his appreciation for Bernie Sanders and later said he would rather vote for Trump than President Joe Biden. He revealed on his show that he voted for libertarian candidate Jo Jorgenson in 2020. Rogan has often been criticized for the conversations he hosts on his show, which often give a platform to far-right commentators and potentially dangerous conspiracy theorists. He has also been criticized for spreading false information during the Covid-19 pandemic and the vaccine.
Former US President Barack Obama lashed out at “crazy” Donald Trump Thursday and urged voters to back Kamala Harris as he brought his star power to the 2024 election campaign trail for the first time.
As he hit the stump in the must-win state of Pennsylvania, Obama also chided Black male voters for what he called hesitancy in supporting Democrat Harris because they “just aren’t feeling the idea of having a woman as president.”
Obama trained his fire on Trump during a pumped-up rally in Pittsburgh, comparing the Republican’s long speeches to late Cuban communist leader Fidel Castro’s and calling the billionaire out of touch with ordinary people.
America’s first Black president admitted that “this election’s going to be tight” as many voters were still struggling with high prices.
But he told the crowd that “what I cannot understand is why anybody would think that Donald Trump will shake things up”, adding: “You think Donald Trump ever changed a diaper?’
The popular Democrat called Trump’s schemes to sell bibles as “crazy” and used the same word to describe the 78-year-old former president’s embrace of conspiracy theories.
As the crowd booed Trump, his successor in the White House, Obama added: “Don’t boo — vote.”
“Kamala is as prepared for the job as any nominee for president has ever been,” he added.
‘Got a problem’
Vice president Harris’s campaign said Obama’s appearance, the first in a series in battleground states before the November 5 election, was designed to get people out to vote in crucial Pennsylvania.
Obama took aim at male voters who might be attracted by the Republican’s appeals towards machismo.
“I’m sorry gentlemen, I’ve noticed this, especially with some men who seem to think Trump’s behavior, the bullying and the putting people down, is a sign of strength,” he said.
“And I am here to tell you that is not what real strength is.”
Earlier, in a surprise stop before the rally at a campaign field office in Pittsburgh, Obama made an unusually direct appeal to Black men, whose support polls show Harris has struggled to mobilize.
Saying he had some “truths” that he wanted the Black community to hear, Obama said that “you’re coming up with all kinds of reasons and excuses, I’ve got a problem with that.”
“Because part of it makes me think — and I’m speaking to men directly — part of it makes me think that, well, you just aren’t feeling the idea of having a woman as president.”
Harris was in battleground Nevada for a town hall hosted by the Spanish language network Univision Thursday and later spoke at a rally in Arizona aimed at reaching out to Latino voters.
When a woman asked Harris at the town hall to name three of Trump’s virtues, she replied: “I think Donald Trump loves his family, and I think that’s very important…. But I don’t really know him, to be honest with you. I don’t have much more to offer you.”
In Arizona, Harris addressed the devastation caused by Hurricane Milton in Florida, saying the federal government “has mobilized thousands of personnel” to recover and rebuild the region.
The White House said Harris had also taken part in a virtual briefing on Milton, which has sparked a political storm between Republicans and Democrats.
‘Dumber than hell’
Trump was in the hotly contested state of Michigan on Thursday, unveiling new details of his protectionist plans for the US auto industry, including sweeping tariffs on vehicles not made in America.
Trump also ramped up his personal attacks on Harris, branding her “dumber than hell,” and assailed the auto industry capital Detroit itself as run down as he was speaking to the city’s economic club.
“Our whole country will end up being like Detroit if she’s your president,” he said.
Harris meanwhile said she had accepted an offer for a CNN town hall on October 23 in Pennsylvania, after Trump turned down a final televised debate with her.
“I think it’s a disservice to the voters,” Harris said in Arizona about Trump rejecting a second debate. “I also think it’s a pretty weak move.”
Democrats are hoping Obama could give Harris a boost in a race that has been locked with Trump for weeks, after her initial boost in the polls after she took over from President Joe Biden as the party’s nominee in July.
Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama delivered rapturously received speeches backing Harris at the Democratic National Convention in August.
Former first lady Melania Trump has stirred criticism from the pro-life movement after sharing her pro-abortion views in her upcoming memoir and in a video message on X.
In her self-titled memoir “Melania,” set to be released Oct. 8, one month before Election Day, the former first lady writes about her life, her family, her time in the White House, and briefly about her support for legal abortion. Some excerpts from the book were published by The Guardian on Wednesday evening.
“It is imperative to guarantee that women have autonomy in deciding their preference of having children, based on their own convictions, free from any intervention or pressure from the government,” Melania Trump, the second Catholic first lady in American history, wrote in the autobiographical book.
“Why should anyone other than the woman herself have the power to determine what she does with her own body?” Melania Trump added. “A woman’s fundamental right of individual liberty, to her own life, grants her the authority to terminate her pregnancy if she wishes.”
“Restricting a woman’s right to choose whether to terminate an unwanted pregnancy is the same as denying her control over her own body,” she wrote. “I have carried this belief with me throughout my entire adult life.”
On Thursday, Melania Trump doubled down on this position in a video posted on X, which advertised the memoir.
“Without a doubt, there is no room for compromise when it comes to this essential right that all women possess from birth: individual freedom,” she said. “What does ‘my body, my choice’ really mean?”
Former president Donald Trump, who faces Vice President Kamala Harris in his bid for a second nonconsecutive term in the White House, responded to his wife’s comments without endorsing them or disavowing them.
“We spoke about it and I said, ‘You have to write what you believe — I’m not going to tell you what to do,’” Donald Trump told Fox News reporter Bill Melugin.
“I said, ‘You have to stick with your heart,’” Donald Trump added. “I’ve said that to everybody: ‘You have to go with your heart.’ There are some people that are very, very far-right on the issue, meaning without exceptions. And then there are other people that view it a little bit differently than that.”
Pro-life movement responds to Melania Trump
Many leaders in the pro-life movement have expressed frustration over Melania Trump’s abortion comments. Some pro-life advocates are still focused on securing a Donald Trump victory over Harris, while others are expressing dismay over the campaign’s movement away from pro-life values.
Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America president Marjorie Dannenfelser said in a statement provided to CNA that the organization’s top priority “is to defeat Kamala Harris and the Democrats’ push to nationally mandate no-limits abortion on demand funded by every taxpayer.”
However, Dannenfelser still took issue with Melania Trump’s comments, saying: “Women with unplanned pregnancies are crying out for more resources, not more abortions.”
“We must have compassion for them and for babies in the womb who suffer from brutal abortions,” she added. “Tens of thousands of abortions a year are performed on children after the point when they can feel excruciating pain.”
Kristan Hawkins, the president of Students for Life Action, told CNA that “the bottom line is that it’s not just her body in that moment” when a woman is pregnant, adding: “Two people or maybe more are there.”
(Story continues below)
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“Melania Trump had a chance to inspire in her book but, instead, chose to push broken feminism that puts women at war with their own bodies,” Hawkins continued. “I won’t be buying a copy of the book.”
Some pro-life activists have offered harsher criticism of Donald Trump’s campaign after Melania Trump’s comments.
Live Action President Lila Rose asserted in a post on X that Melania Trump and Harris have “functionally the same exact position on abortion.” In late August, Rose indicated she might not vote for Donald Trump because his campaign has not been pro-life enough.
Robert P. George, a legal scholar at Princeton University and a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, said in a Facebook post that he shared with CNA that he believes Melania Trump’s abortion comments were prompted by Donald Trump’s campaign.
“The campaign sent her out to signal to pro-abortion voters that the ‘right to abortion’ would be fully protected in a second Trump administration,” George said. “Her message is that Donald, having thrown pro-life Americans under the bus, will keep us under the bus.”
“Her record has been one of saying little or nothing on political issues,” he continued. “Now, suddenly, she is releasing videos passionately claiming that the protection of abortion, even late-term abortion, must be given the highest priority. Things like that don’t just happen.”
George told CNA that he believes Harris is “even worse on abortion” and “appallingly awful” on the issue.
Where the candidates stand on abortion
Donald Trump appointed three of the six Supreme Court justices who voted to overturn Roe v. Wade, which allowed states to restrict abortion and pass pro-life laws. In his 2024 campaign, the former president has sought to moderate the Republican Party’s approach to abortion and has attempted the difficult task of maintaining support from the pro-life voting bloc without alienating independents and moderates.
Earlier this week, he said in a post on X he would veto any legislation that would prohibit abortion “because it is up to the states to decide, based on the will of their voters.” He asserted that Democrats support the “radical position of late-term abortion … in the seventh, eighth, or ninth month [of pregnancy].”
Harris supports a federal law that would legalize abortion nationwide — at least until the point of viability, which occurs around the 23rd or 24th week of pregnancy. She has not said whether she supports restrictions on late-term abortion.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Harris’ running mate, signed a bill that further solidifies the state’s abortion laws, which permit abortion throughout the entirety of pregnancy, including in the ninth month, for any reason. He signed another bill that scaled back legal protections in the case of an infant who is born alive after a failed abortion attempt.
Tyler Arnold is a staff reporter for Catholic News Agency, based in EWTN News’ Washington Bureau. He previously worked at The Center Square and has been published in a variety of outlets, including The Associated Press, National Review, The American Conservative, and The Federalist.
Bruce Springsteen performs at MetLife Stadium on August 30, 2023 in East Rutherford, New Jersey. … [+] (Photo by Manny Carabel/Getty Images)
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Just weeks after Vice President Kamala Harris received the endorsement of pop superstar, rock legend Bruce Springsteen threw his support behind her as well. In a video post on Instagram, the 75-year-old rocker—who is known simply as “The Boss”—suggested this is “one of the most consequential elections in our nation’s history.”
The “Born in the USA” singer further offered a critique of former President Donald Trump, while he lamented the fact that the nation is as “politically, spiritually and emotionally divided” as at any time since the American Civil War.
“It doesn’t have to be this way,” Springsteen added.
The endorsement wasn’t entirely surprising, as Springsteen has a long history of backing Democrats. He previously endorsed Barack Obama in 2008, and in the 2020 U.S. presidential election provided a narration for a Joe Biden campaign ad while the song “My Hometown” played in the background.
Whether Springsteen’s endorsement will move the needle in this year’s razor-close election isn’t clear, it likely could cost him some fans due to the deep political divide he warned about.
“Steve Van Zandt was quoted recently as saying Bruce’s political views had cost the band a lot of fans,” explained Bruce Barber, professional in residence at the University of New Haven and general manager of radio station WNHU. “He’s probably right—but that to me is what a true artist is all about, the ability to speak truths, in words and song, regardless of the consequences. Springsteen’s support for Kamala Harris is definitely not a surprise, but it’s another example of his undying commitment to being genuine in his art and his personal life.”
What About Bill?
Just as Springsteen released his endorsement of Harris, it was another celebrity that went viral on Thursday—namely, What About Bob? actor Bill Murray for his alleged backing of Trump.
Internet personality Bo Loudon posted a clip of Murray from 2016 “praising” some of the former president’s policies, and suggested “Who needs Taylor Swift when you have BILL MURRAY?”
The clip, which was seen nearly six million times, seemed to convince many that the Ghost Busters star had endorsed Trump. However, as of Friday afternoon, Bill Murray has been silent on the issue and hasn’t endorsed either candidate. According to Vanity Fair, Murray had campaigned for the Green Party’s Ralph Nader in the 2000 presidential race—but perhaps that was “lost in translation.”
Murray would just be the latest celebrity to see his/her/their endorsement of a candidate—even if it wasn’t made. Such endorsements might barely move the needle, but given how close this race is every single vote is going to matter.
“Celebrity endorsements are very important in today’s political world,” said Dr. Julianna Kirschner, lecturer at the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern California.
“Taylor Swift’s endorsement of Kamala Harris and Tim Walz has made notable political, cultural, and social waves. Likewise, other celebrities endorsing candidates can have a similar ripple effect,” added Kirschner.
Expect More Faux Endorsements
A video clip from eight years ago is hardly an endorsement, but it was enough for many to believe that Murray was a Trump supporter.
“Without any corroborating evidence, the comment’s validity appears dubious at best,” suggested Kirschner. “News organizations verify facts from several sources before broadcasting them, which is the likely reason for a lack of reporting on the subject. All we have right now is conjecture, a premise through which misinformation on social media thrives.”
These faux endorsements are just the latest form of misinformation that we’ve seen this election cycle. In this particular case, the video is just enough to make the story seem credible.
“Misinformation booms when information cannot be validated. In this case, Murray’s position is unclear,” added Kirschner. “Users may double down when presented with contrasting information is presented to them. There is plenty of research that would support the likelihood of such an outcome. Given the high chances of users doubling down, the possibility of celebrity endorsements moving the needle would be small but not insignificant. In the tight race we are in, everything, no matter how small, makes a difference.”
How Should Celebrities Respond?
The other side of this story is that Swift and Springsteen could receive some backlash from fans, but as Barber noted, the Boss likely knew it going in. In Murray’s case, he could face scrutiny for something he didn’t even do.
As an A-lister, he likely won’t be impacted; yet, we could see the careers of up-and-comers affected—perhaps running afoul of a casting director, movie producer, publicist, etc.
“From the celebrity’s perspective, they should be concerned with how they are politically represented online. This can affect their reputation and potential support from fans, which inevitably allows them to continue to do their work,” Kirschner continued.
And the problem could get worse. Murray may have actually offered his past comments in an interview, but advances in deep fakes could soon put words into the mouths of celebrities—living and dead alike!
“As AI becomes more advanced, it is likely that comments, images, and videos of what appears to be celebrities endorsing a candidate may be outright false,” warned Kirschner. “As cases like Murray’s attributed comment come up in the future, it will become increasingly challenging to discern fact from fiction.”
