It is no secret that President Donald Trump loves McDonald's.

He offered McDonald's as a fast-food buffet for college football champions in 2019. He hung out at a McDonald's drive-through window during the 2024 campaign. Footage shows Saudi Arabia rolled out a McDonald's trailer during Trump's trip to the Middle East earlier this year.

He also spoke at the McDonald's Impact Summit in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 17, where the McDonald's company’s leadership, franchise owners and other stakeholders discussed its corporate strategy.

“I'm honored to stand before you as the very first former McDonald's fry cook ever to become president of the United States,” Trump said.

But did he work at McDonald's? Here is what we know:

Did Donald Trump work at McDonald's?

He made a campaign stop at a McDonald's ahead of the 2024 presidential election.

As Trump and former Vice President Kamala Harris headed into the homestretch of their campaigns, Trump went to McDonald's in Pennsylvania and raised his unfounded claim that Harris never worked at the restaurant, though she says she did back in the 1980s to help pay for her college tuition.

"I'm looking for a job, and I always wanted to work at McDonald's. I never did," Trump said in an Oct. 20, 2024, video posted on X. "I'm running against somebody that said she did but it turned out to be a totally phony story."

With an apron over his usual dress shirt and red tie, he worked the fry station and the drive-through window.

The footage went viral, and the campaign promptly turned it into a merchandise opportunity by selling "MAGADonald's T-shirts.”

Trump speaks on prices and affordability at McDonald's

At the summit, Trump sought to highlight his own attempts at reining in inflation and his love for McDonald's, a working-class staple.

“While other politicians fly around on campaign planes stocked with expensive catering, on Trump Force One (his private plane) prior to ascending to Air Force One, which is quite a nice plane also, we served only McDonald's almost every time,” he said.

Trump also went on to highlight his efforts to eliminate various taxes, loosen regulations and increase investments to bolster the economy.

“No tax on tips, no tax on overtime, and no tax on social security for our great seniors,” he said, enumerating the tax cuts in his signature tax and spending bill that Congress passed in July.

As he did in a Truth Social post on Nov. 5, Trump once again claimed that the cost of a Walmart’s 2025 Thanksgiving meal was 25% less than in 2024.

However, Walmart’s 2025 Thanksgiving bundle of pre-selected products includes fewer grocery items and different food brands than in 2024. An analysis by FactCheck.org found that “there’s still a drop in price when comparing the same basket of items as the 2024 meal, but it’s a smaller decrease — 6.5% by our calculations.”

Average U.S. grocery prices in September were 2.7% higher than they were in September 2024 under former President Joe Biden, according to Consumer Price Index figures. But inflation also reached a high of 9.1% under Biden in June 2022, the highest it had been in four decades.

In 2025, overall food prices are anticipated to rise faster than the historical average rate of growth. In 2025, prices for all food are predicted to increase 3%, according to USDA’s Economic Research Service’s September forecast.

Trump signed an executive order Nov. 14 eliminating tariffs on products including beef, coffee, tomatoes and oranges to address concerns around affordability.

He also praised McDonald’s for “recommitting to affordable options.”

“I want to give a very special thanks to McDonald’s for slashing prices for your most popular items, bringing back Extra Value Meals,” he said.

Kinsey Crowley is the Trump Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach her at KCrowley@usatodayco.com. Follow her on X (Twitter), Bluesky and TikTok.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Did Trump work at McDonald's? He said he’s the first fry cook to become POTUS

Reporting by Kinsey Crowley and Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect