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Walz accuses Trump of disrespecting workers by ‘cosplaying’ at McDonald’s

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D), the Democratic vice presidential nominee, on Monday accused former President Trump of disrespecting McDonald’s workers by pretending to work at one of its restaurants Sunday.

Trump traded his suit jacket for an apron at a McDonald’s location in Bucks County, Pa., still donning his red tie and white button-down shirt underneath. Trump worked the fry cooker and handed orders to customers at the drive-thru window.

“Trump is cosplaying as a McDonald’s worker,” Walz said in a post on the social platform X, responding to a clip from his Monday interview on ABC’s “The View.”

In the interview, Walz similarly addressed Trump’s photo op at McDonald’s this weekend, saying, “Vice President Harris and I grew up middle class. We understand that.”

“She actually worked in a McDonald’s. She didn’t go and pander and disrespect McDonald’s workers by standing there in your red tie and take a picture,” Walz continued.


“His policies are the ones that undermine those very workers that were in that McDonald’s, whether it’s home ownership, health care, reproductive rights or cost of products.”

The former president visited the fast-food chain ahead of a town hall in Lancaster, Pa., later Sunday. He also attended the Pittsburgh Steelers game against the New York Jets on Sunday night.

The McDonald’s stunt generated media coverage as well as criticism from a number of Harris allies.

“Donald Trump, a 78-year-old, who’s never earned a real paycheck in his life, put on a show, playing dress-up to act like he’s one of us,” Shawn Fain, head of the United Auto Workers union, said at a Harris campaign event Sunday.

Trump has been fixated for weeks on Vice President Harris’s past experience working at McDonald’s in college. He and his allies have repeatedly suggested Harris did not actually work there because it was not listed on her resume.

“I’ve now worked for 15 minutes more than Kamala,” Trump said Sunday.

The Harris campaign maintains she worked there while earning her college degree at Howard University and has noted the vice president has mentioned the job in past campaigns as well.

The Hill has reached out to the Trump campaign for a response to Walz’s criticism.