Zinger Key Points
- Donald Trump worked at a McDonald's location in Pennsylvania during a 2024 election campaign stop in this key swing state.
- The McDonald's franchise location was review bombed with a large number of 1-star and 5-star reviews on Yelp.
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Former President Donald Trump completed a short stint working at a McDonald's MCD restaurant in the key swing state of Pennsylvania on Oct. 20.
Fans and critics of Trump took to review site Yelp Inc YELP to leave reviews of the restaurant. Here's the best of the more than 100 one-star and five-star reviews.
What Happened: Trump working the fry stations and drive-thru window at a franchised Pennsylvania McDonald's restaurant prompted the large restaurant company to make a statement about not endorsing candidates.
While McDonald's statement may be to fend off the politicization of the fast-food company, another company had to take action after the Trump visit.
Yelp temporarily turned off the ability to leave reviews for the Feasterville-Trevose McDonald's location in Pennsylvania.
"Unusual Activity Alert. This business recently received increased public attention, which often means people come to this page to post their views on the news. While we don't take a stand one way or the other when it comes to this incident, we've temporarily disabled the posting of content to this page as we work to investigate whether the content you see here reflects actual consumer experiences rather than the recent events," a pop-up from Yelp reads.
The warning tells people seeking to leave a real first-hand review to wait for a later date.
"When we see the activity dramatically decrease or stop, our moderators will clean up the page so reviews describing only firsthand consumer experiences are reflected," Yelp's Vice President of User Operations Noorie Malik told the Wall Street Journal.
Did You Know?
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The Reviews: The Yelp page shows an average rating of two stars out of five stars for the McDonald's location with many one-star reviews left after Trump's appearance. The location also saw a higher rate of five-star reviews after Trump's appearance.
Many of the reviews came from people that do not list Pennsylvania as their home state and could see their comments deleted in the coming days. Here's some of the highlighted one-star and five-star ratings for your viewing pleasure.
1-star reviews:
- "Fire that smelly old man cursing at the fryer! Employees seem extremely angry and confused like he didn't really know where he was."
- "Customer service was a joke. Senile old man got bronzer on my fries, didn't wear gloves. Repeated himself several times."
- "The incoherent old guy working the window was slurring his words and refused to give us our change."
- "Warning do not eat at this location. The franchisee is a known cult 45 member only to do a photo op with a convicted felon on premises."
- "Some older man, seemed new, just kept rambling incoherent sentences."
- "The fries were too salty as if someone who lost a major election had been crying over them for an hour."
- "This is elderly abuse making an old man with dementia make fries repeatedly."
5-star reviews:
- "The best McDonald's I've ever been to in 47 years. The older employee was extremely nice. Make McDonald's Great Again!"
- "I'd like to highlight the new senior hire. He was so pleasant and genuinely looked happy to work there. I'm definitely coming back."
- "Amazing service! Thank you to the fry cook! My fries were fresh and hot! He even fixed the McFlurry machine! 10/10."
- "Great service. Super friendly. The best tasting fries I've ever had at McDonald's. Highly recommend this location."
- "The fries here are amazing…they taste great, fried to perfection by one the most competent, most proven fry cooks in decades. Common sense fry policies make the taste great again…"
In total, over 100 reviews were left after Trump's visit. It's highly possible that the large majority of the reviews came from people who have never been to the McDonald's location in the small town with a population of less than 7,000 people.
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Photos: McDonald’s French Fries, photo by New Africa via Shutterstock; Trump via Shutterstock
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