Donald Trump assembled his own McDonald’s super-burger while on the campaign trail in 2024, cobbling together a custom-made jumbo sandwich using two other burgers, according to Republican National Committee chair Joe Gruters.
According to Gruters, an ally of Trump, 79, who was speaking on the Chambers, Changes, and Conversations podcast, he witnessed the creation of Trump’s avant-garde meal during a flight with him.
Asked to recount one of the “funniest or unexpected” things Gruters had seen while on the campaign trail with Trump, he said it was “the amount and what the president eats”, adding that he had also tried the food, but it had made him “as sick as a dog for 24 hours”.
Trump’s love of unhealthy fast food is well documented, but his particular order and its potential impact on his health have long been a source of fascination among observers.
The interview with Gruters sheds new light on the presidential diet and how Trump likes his food to be presented when flying.
“When I was with him, he had hot fries waiting for him from McDonald’s,” Gruters said. “I got my fries at my chair, but he had his handed to him right when he got on the plane.
“Then he had a Filet-o-Fish, a Quarter Pounder, a Big Mac, and I think he combined two of them,” Gruters said.
“I had two of the sandwiches and I was as sick as a dog for 24 hours, but I did enjoy it,” Gruters added without further explanation.
Expanding on the health implications of regular fast food consumption, Gruters wondered: “How does a guy that is as senior as him get away with eating all this McDonald’s probably on a consistent basis?”
He added, “He loves McDonald’s. McDonald’s should be paying that guy.”
According to McDonald’s own calorie calculator, this particular order would be around 2130 calories, representing 136 percent of the recommended daily intake of saturated and trans fats.
Trump’s apparent new fusion burger-based meal represents a departure from previous reports on his McDonald’s order.
In 2017, two of Trump’s former top aides said he would wolf down “two Big Macs, two Filet-O-Fish, and a chocolate malted” in one sitting.
This was according to Corey Lewandowski, who was fired as Trump’s campaign manager, and fellow top aide David Bossie, both of whom are co-authors of the book “Let Trump Be Trump.”
It also claims that Trump regularly ate fast food as he travelled around the U.S.
“On Trump Force One, there were four major food groups: McDonald’s, Kentucky Fried Chicken, pizza, and Diet Coke,” the authors write.
Other demonstrations of Trump’s passion for fast food include his famous decision to serve a mountain of burgers to elite athletes at the White House during his first term, and pulling a shift at a Pennsylvania branch of the Golden Arches as a campaign stunt late last year.
The apparently new creative element to Trump’s burger consumption comes weeks after Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr, backed down from plans to legislate against ultra-processed foods used by the fast food industry.
His “Make America Healthy Again” initiative will now not target ultra-processed foods or pesticides, and does not outline any plans to restrict their sale, despite low-nutrition junk foods accounting for 62 per cent of the calories consumed by American children.
Kennedy’s officials previously released a report in May detailing the factors that they believed were having a malign effect on the health of U.S. children, notably attacking chemical food additives that, its authors alleged, are tied to cancer and developmental disorders.
Kennedy has long spoken out against processed foods. At his Senate confirmation hearings in January, he declared: “Something is poisoning the American people, and we know that the primary culprits are changing food supply, a switch to highly chemical-intensive processed foods.”
At the same hearings, RFK Jr said, “I don’t want to take food away from anybody. If you like… a McDonald’s cheeseburger, Diet Coke, which my boss loves, you should be able to get them.”
