Meme - lan Haworth @ighaworth: "I can't believe Donald Trump would stage a photo-op at McDonald's for political purposes. Who would do such a thing?! *AOC at border crying*"
Thread by @Musa_alGharbi on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App - " Lots of folks on this site began by smearing McDonalds, showing revulsion for that kind of work, for the food, and disdain towards the kinds of people who would eat there. And then, when the poor class implications of these narratives became undeniable, they tried to retrofit their comments as being about something else... like the staged nature of the event, faux populism, etc. It's fine to criticize those things! But that wasn't the initial tenor of the conversation at all. And the initial conversation is a good example of why this was a good political stunt for Trump -- provoking the Democrats' core constituency into mocking and deriding "those people" in elitist ways. The same kind of thing happened when he served up McDonald's to college athletes:
For his part, Trump famously loves @McDonalds. He's eaten there his whole life, and has a really idiosyncratic go-to order, as highlighted during his initial run for office:
So it's theater. But it's also real passion for the product. And this latter fact is the kind of thing that a certain bloc of America really finds grating about the man. And another part of the population finds endearing.
For my part, I couldn't help but think of @Chris_arnade's book Dignity while watching many who self-identify with the left step onto a rake on this issue. As Arnade highlights, for many less affluent folks, McDonalds is an important community gathering point. It's bad politics to bash McDonalds, the people who work there, or the people who eat there. Don't recommend."
Meme - ">5 kids from 3 baby mama
>felon
>been shot
>working at mcdonalds"
"He's a n***"
Meme - Happy Rogue: "WHEN MEN PRETEND BE WOMEN."
Upset Rogue: "WHEN MEN PRETEND TO WORK AT McDONALDS."
Thread by @DrewHolden360 on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App - "🧵Thread🧵 I know it seems silly, but the media meltdown about Trump working at a McDonald’s is clarifying about why trust in the press has cratered. Before we get to that, let’s revisit some of the most deranged takes. ⤵️
The press’s response to Trump deciding to troll Harris for her unsupported claims that she worked at McDonald’s by working at the chain himself sent the media into a tizzy. Here’s @CNN, suddenly apologetic about a corporation in the political limelight.
My favorite take came from @nytimes, who appeared outraged that…Trump didn’t wear a hairnet. No, really. They included it in the subtitle. @NBCNews went with “pre-selected customers,” as if perhaps anyone believed Trump just slipped into the kitchen. Why does the press need to attack everything Trump does with such gusto? I mean, @MSNBC brought on an elected official to provide a real-time reaction to…Trump handing out McDonald’s french fries.
As others have pointed out, what Trump did was basically just the Iowa State Fair in miniature. But to @RollingStone, it was a “bizarre attempt to troll” Trump’s opponent. I don’t think regular people saw it as bizarre at all. Going a step further, @CNBC said that Harris’s campaign “scoffs” at the “stunt.” Take that, Trump! She’s scoffing! Feast your eyes on this cope from @NYMag. Again, no one is forcing them to cover this!!
“Surreal footage” @thedailybeast declared. I think the media’s befuddlement about the wisdom of this says much more about them than Trump. What would we do without these guys?
This @washingtonpost headline is just dripping with disdain — how dare Trump not address the minimum wage during his “stage-managed campaign stop”? And that subtitle sentiment, that the problem with Harris’s baseless claim that she worked at McDonald’s isn’t the issue, just Trump’s claim she didn’t that supposedly lacks evidence, was all over the place. Here’s @nytimes @Forbes @latimes & @AP Do they know how logic works?
You might think that such a silly story would quickly move from the headlines. You’d be mistaken. On Day 2 of the McDonald’s Election, we got even more unhinged takes. Here’s @CNN, @nytimes, @qz and @MSNBC. You’ve just gotta read the headlines. @AP just covering itself in glory here.
Why did the public need this detail, @brianstelter? What does this add, on the eve of an election?
I don’t usually include internet randos these days but some of these takes were just too much to leave out. Trump has broken the brains of @RonFilipkowski, @AaronParnas (“YIKES”), @Keith Olbermann (you knew that) and former thread favorite @SethAbramson.
I didn’t expect to say this, but I think the best analysis of this kerfuffle comes from…@cenkuygur. Trump looks like a real person. The media look detached from real people.
But why? Why did the media feel compelled to spend so much ink trying to dunk on Trump over something so silly, so anodyne? Didn’t they realize all it did was amplify what he was trying to do? This all may seem like nonsense. And it is, in a sense. But it’s also clarifying. The media’s inability to tolerate anything Trump says or does, and their rush to attack every example, puts their bias on display in a way that couldn’t be more obvious. In this case it was something trivial. In countless other cases, it was something trivial. Or something misleading. What matters is the default response to a former POTUS, who may well be the next one, is head-spinning outrage. How can that make quality news coverage?
It doesn’t. What it does make is outrage porn masquerading as media analysis. When that becomes the dominant thread of media coverage when it comes to anything a former (and maybe future) president touches, as it has with Trump, it makes a mockery of the profession. So to those who lament — as I do! — the loss of faith in the media, let me point you to the forces that have caused that erosion. @ChrisCillizza
And, I’ve gotta say, whoever’s idea it was to do this, bravo. The fry cook cameo took Harris’s birthday (!!) and turned it into a multi-day media cycle of the press highlighting their bias and demeaning everyday Americans, while making Trump look, well, normal. The media has to be better than this if they want to restore any semblance of trust. The prospects of that don’t look good."
Thread by @Will_Tanner_1 on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App - "I think the Trump McDonald's visit hit home with so many is that it was a glimmer of nobility, of a time of hierarchy and noblesse oblige rather than the usual American politician thing of pretending to be a prole, as shown by what he wore A short 🧵👇
This is actually something that Trump is quite good at Unlike all the other American politicians who dress in flannel when they want to look like a country person, t-shirts when they want to look casual, and a suit when they want to look formal, Trump just wears his suit He's not lower class. He's not middle class. He's not upper-middle class. He's a billionaire, the upper part of the upper class. As such, he doesn't wear casual clothes. He wears what he should wear, a suit and tie with French cuffs and polished black shoes, at all times, unless he's playing golf or tennis, when the specific clothing for that sport is more appropriate. There are few people who still do that, the only real example is the old-title slice of the British peerage and the monarchy, along with some other aristocracies and monarchies abroad; you never see them in something other than a suit, unless it's more appropriate to be in something else
In fact, it's only when they've fallen and degraded that they stop doing that. Harry, for example, now that he's married to a race communist, dresses down, much unlike his father and brother. Notably, he started doing that once he moved to democratic America and shunned his noble roots
All that is to say, those members of the upper strata who are self-confident and live according to tradition and duty don't feel the need to dress down to appeal to "democracy". There's no point to that, it's nonsense, and everyone sees through it. But most of America's billionaires dress down to try to look like the "common man". It's weird and offputting
Trump doesn't do that. He dresses like he ought. More importantly, he acts like it too. He doesn't pretend to be a random peon. He, instead, acts in a self-confident way. Further, he doesn't condescend; he treated those around him, as he should, as people whose lives and jobs are worthy of respect and consideration rather than looking down on them. He joked with them, put them at ease, and respected their work, without seeming like an ass as he did so. Meanwhile, his enemies spent 24 hours mocking the job and those who do it, all while pretending to represent the "common man"
The thing is, Trump's mode of acting is quite old, whereas the hate directed his way is quite new. It is, really, the conflict between gentry/aristocracy and managerialism, the conflict between the old world and new, bureaucratic world. Trump is acting, as suggested by his self-confident bearing and dress, like the old, whereas his enemies very much represent the new. The old is, broadly, the country squire. The local man of "quality" who hunted and lived in a country house rather than a little cottage, but who knew his tenants and who would have his servants serve those farmers a glass of beer or cider when they stopped by, who hosted coming of age parties and similar events in which he would invite the whole village over. That squire didn't pretend to be a "normal working man." He wore a frock coat and top boots rather than working clothes, drank wine rather than beer, and spent his time outdoors hunting the fox and shooting the pheasant rather than digging ditches or farming fields. But he also knew those who were under him and helped his community. It was a hierarchy at which he sat toward the top and acted the part, but in which there was also a sense of responsibility toward those below
You still see this in King Charles III being, as @JohannKurtz recently pointed out on my podcast with him, someone who advocates for issues like regenerative agriculture and classical architecture that serve the people and beautify their lives. Notably he does that while acting like a royal rather than dressing down and pretending to be on of his subjects, much as Trump always acts like a billionaire. Not so much today. Today, instead of having gentlemen in charge, we have bureaucrats and managers. Those bureaucrat and managers don't live around or have any idea about normal people, even those working under them. They never do the work, never see the work, and avoid those who do the work as best they're able, all while feigning a sense of total, unearned superiority to them. So you get people running a company who have no idea how it actually operates and the work gets done, people sending soldiers to die who never even knew a soldier, much less fought as one, and those who constantly pretend to be "normal" while nursing a constantly aggrieved sense of superiority. You saw this in the leftist outrage that Trump had an easy time packing fries at McDonald's; to them, such a job is so foreign as to be both seen as impossible and utterly derided at the same time
That's not Trump. He's always in a suit but also was known for walking around his job sites and having an easy camaraderie with the men working them, something otherwise entirely foreign to our government but which Trump was still like when in office. And when he was at McDonald's
So, Trump didn't feel the need to condescend by dressing down. He just took off his jacket, put on his apron, and had an easy time with those around him. There was no lurking sense of inferiority and belief of superiority that manifested in tiresome resentment, something you see with the rest of the managerial class and which manifests in billionaires wearing t-shirts. I think it's interesting that Trump intuitively represents the old despite being mostly a new man, and that because of it, he has easy camaraderie with those around him and who is more popular than any other American president, or even politician, in recent memory. He;s not fake
I don’t think think this thread was as coherent as I intended it. For those who read with confusion, my central point is this: Americans do r like phonies. They like real men who behave as they ought, even if that initially seems out of place, like cufflinks at a fryer. It’s honest, and thus good, much like the aristocratic order was honest about what it was about. That makes for camaraderie across social classes, as Trump shows, in an honest way that our bureaucratic overlords and their system are entirely devoid of. I think Trump also cares about those with whom he meets, and wants their levies to be better. Further he has a sense of needing to use his wealth and resources to effect that, but in an aristocratic rather than philanthropic way. Hence the noblesse oblige comment "
Meme - "When you've maxed out your stats and beaten the whole game, but decide to replay an early storyline quest. *Trump working at McDonald's*"
Coddled affluent professional on X - "A lot of people will vote for Trump for legitimate political reasons: foreign policy, immigration, the economy, etc. But many people will vote for Trump simply because they dislike libs. Have libs thought about trying to be less unlikeable? Or can they not help themselves?"
Geoffrey Miller on X - "Libs are caught up in a game of runaway virtue-signaling to other libs. They seem not to care about increasing their appeal to conservatives, who are seen as an evil outgroup worthy only of contempt and stigma. Which makes it hard for them to persuade many conservatives...."
Meme - "Mark Hamill: TRUMP IS GREEDY!"!.
Also Mark Hamill :
MARK HAMILL AUTOGRAPH PRICES
8x10 PHOTO $400 each
PREMIUM $500 each
BULKY $700 each"
Meme - "Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson thanking Donald Trump for his private donations to several African American scholarship funds. THAT'S RIGHT"
Meme - Kamala's Wins @harris_wins: "BREAKING: New reporting shows that not one fortune 100 CEO supports Donald Trump or JD Vance."
Elon Musk @elonmusk: "For one, I endorsed Trump and they know it all too well, so that statement from "Kamala Wins" is deliberately misleading. Second, very few corporate CEOs ever endorse a Presidential candidate, so any implication that the rest of the Fortune 100 supports Kamala is false. Overwhelmingly, the corporate CEOs tell me privately that they support Trump, not Kamala."
Who is 'Abdul'? Donald Trump recounts threat to Taliban leader during debate - "Former President Trump during Tuesday night’s debate recounted a threat he made to “Abdul … the head of the Taliban” as he and Vice President Harris engaged about the Biden administration’s handling of the deadly withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021. Trump’s story came from when he was president, and he said the threat came because of the deaths of U.S. soldiers. “I got involved. And Abdul is the head of the Taliban. He is still the head of the Taliban,” Trump said. “And I told Abdul, ‘Don’t do it anymore. You do it anymore, you’re going to have problems.’ And he said, ‘Why do you send me a picture of my house?’ I said, ‘You’re going to have to figure that out, Abdul.’ And for 18 months we had nobody killed.”... Rep. Wesley Hunt (R-Texas) also told a similar version of the story this summer during an appearance on former ESPN host Sage Steele’s podcast. “President Trump looked at the Taliban leader and said this ‘If you harm a hair on a single American, I’m going to kill you,'” Hunt said, noting the use of a satellite photo of the “leader of the Taliban’s home” in the threat... The Associated Press has reported there was no year-and-a-half stretch during Trump’s presidency without combat deaths among U.S. service members. There was an 18-month span in the final months of Trump’s term that stretched into the Biden administration before the Afghanistan withdrawal where no U.S. soldiers were killed."
Defiant L’s on X - "Hands down one of Trump's coldest moments."
Wesley Hunt reflects on Trump threat to Taliban leaders: ‘My favorite President Trump story’ - "Hunt explained how Trump wanted “a conditions-based withdrawal” of U.S. troops from Afghanistan when he and then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo were negotiating with Taliban leaders. During these negotiations, Trump told Taliban leaders that he would kill them “if you harm a hair on a single American,” prompting the translator present with them to appear stunned. “And Trump goes, ‘Tell him. Just tell him what I said!’” Hunt said on The Sage Steele Show. “Reached into his pocket, pulled out a satellite photo of the leader of the Taliban’s home, and handed it to him, got up, and walked out the room.” Hunt then noted how no U.S. residents died in Afghanistan for 18 months during Trump’s presidency, calling this “the definition of strength.”... Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL), who was also a part of the interview, explained how seven U.S. embassies have been lost under Biden’s leadership, which he said has “never happened” in U.S. history. He contended that this is because the adversaries of the U.S. are aware of the country’s “weak” leadership and are taking advantage of this."
Clearly, the chaos of Biden's withdrawal from Afghanistan was Trump's fault, and it would've been even worse if he had been in charge during the withdrawal
Liz Cheney's shady Jan. 6 texts prove 'save democracy' freakout was opportunism - "Yet more unethical backroom bull has been revealed around Nancy Pelosi’s hyperpartisan Jan. 6 hearings — this time involving current Dem fave ex-Rep. Liz Cheney and star witness for the prosecution Cassidy Hutchinson. Hutchinson, a former White House aide, testified (among other things) that then-President Donald Trump had “lunged” for the wheel of his limousine allegedly because he wanted to be driven over to join the Capitol protesters claiming the 2020 election was stolen. She never saw this “lunge,” it’s crucial to note. She was told about it, she recalled; her testimony was later flatly contradicted by multiple other witnesses. Not that the truth has ever meant anything to these people. And now, it seems, Cheney (R-Wyo.) — the No. 2 in the hearings, and currently touring the country in support of Kamala Harris — played a behind-the-scenes role in getting Hutchinson to offer up this sensationalism. Cheney (as a sitting member of Congress) texted with Hutchinson through an intermediary and then directly, even as she knew that trying to coordinate testimony without the counsel Hutchinson had retained being present was a major no-no. Around the same time as the texts, Hutchinson got new lawyers; the switch-up saw a “dramatic change in testimony and eventual claims against President Trump using second- and third-hand accounts,” per the bombshell release from the House subcommittee that dug up the Cheney texts. Cheney herself knew the move was deeply suspect: She didn’t mention it at all in the book she wrote praising her own supposed heroism in probing the Jan. 6 mess. Also, Cheney herself told Jonathan Karl in an interview at the time that anyone who tried to influence testimony at the hearings should be prosecuted for witness tampering... as more and more sunlight gets in, layer after layer of the scuzziest possible behavior by Cheney & Co. is revealed. That should shelve the idea that the “Save Democracy!” freaks were ever in it for anything but scoring their own political points."
Lewis's answer to How would the American Founding Fathers feel about a convicted felon running for president? - Quora - "Ah..suggest you read the history of some of our founding fathers..some of them were not good prople.. Point is trump is no where near as bad as say lbj or wilson who were dems..and supported the kkk…or jackson who personally led troops and massacred over eight hundred men women and children to take there lands…you need to think derper .not idiologically"
Glenn Wolf's answer to How would the American Founding Fathers feel about a convicted felon running for president? - Quora - "If Donald Trump is considered a felon by the left, he's in good company! After all, every signer of the Declaration of Independence and George Washington were felons in the eyes of the CORRUPT, British Crown. Similarly, Trump is patriotically standing up to systemic corruption, taking a seat with the felonious hero’s below."
Clearly, Nelson Mandela should never have been allowed to run for office in South Africa
Meme - "I DON'T SEE HOW YOU CAN CALL YOURSELF A CHRISTIAN AND STILL SUPPORT A CONVICTED FELON"
"JESUS WAS A CONVICTED FELON"
Meme - Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump: "The Coca Cola company is not happy with me--that's okay, I'll still keep drinking that garbage."
i/o @eyeslasho: "Paradoxically, this might have been one of the most effective product endorsements by a celebrity ever. "Yes, the company that makes this product hates me, and, yes, it is garbage, but it's so yummy that I'm going keep buying it and drinking it.""
Meme - *Brokeback Mountain*
*Democratic Party*
*Jan 6*
"I wish I knew how to quit you."
Meme - Glenn Greenwald @ggreenwald: "My favorite part of US politics is when Dems say this with a straight face."
Charlie Spiering @char...: "Kamala Harris warns that Donald Trump will use the Department of Justice to prosecute his enemies."
Meme - DC Draino @DC_Draino: "Filming gay sex in the Senate? No jail. Pulling the fire alarm in Congress? No jail. Waving a Ukrainian flag in Congress? No jail. Walking around peacefully with an American flag in Congress? FBI raids & Federal prison. This is how you know our gov't has been hijacked"
Atlantic article comparing Trump to 'Hitler, Stalin' sparks criticism online from journalists, pundits - "Journalists and political commentators responded on social media to an article from The Atlantic comparing former President Trump to multiple fascist dictators, including Adolf Hitler. The Atlantic article, headlined, "Trump Is Speaking Like Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini" was published Friday. "The former president has brought dehumanizing language into American presidential politics," Atlantic writer Anne Applebaum argued. "When you spend 8 years calling a person every bad name you can think of -- including Hitler -- only to see that it's not working, so you desperately decide the only thing left for you to do is call him all the bad names at once," independent journalist Glenn Greenwald wrote on X in response to the harsh headline."
Brandi Kruse on X - "Tonight I voted for @realDonaldTrump for the first time after bashing him on the news for 8 years. He’s not my first choice … or even my 50th … but I now see how the Progressive left uses him as a boogeyman to distract from their deadly failures. I’m not falling for it anymore."
Meme - "Look at you, posting about me every day, your profile is loaded with pics of me that go back for years, you slobber over every bit of news about me, and you drool like an animal every time you see my face in your dreams." Let's face it, fucking own you and will live in your head FOREVER!"
Democrats Explain Trump Was Going To Be Hitler During His First Term, But He Forgot | Babylon Bee
Meme - Enquirer @Enquirer: "Opinion: There is no place in politics for violence. That said, the former president, Donald Trump, brings a lot of this stuff on himself."
Mostly Peaceful Memes @MostlyPeacefull: ""She shouldn't have been dressed like that, she was asking for it""
Meme - "*Obama, Biden, Harris* THEY HELD POWER FOR 12 OUT OF THE LAST 16 YEARS
*Trump* YET THEY STILL BLAME HIM FOR EVERYTHING WRONG WITH THE U.S.
WHILE CLAIMING THEY KNOW HOW TO FIX IT *Laughing Harris*"
Meme - Charlene Shafer: "https://votersoftomorrow.org/gen-zs-guide-to-project.../...
Gen Z's Guide to Project 2025 - Voters of Tomorrow
This isn't the future Gen Z asked for. Gen Z knows what kind of a future we want ..."
Andrew Wallentine: "I love how you say they dont need read it.. to just believe your wild and false interpretations."
Meme - End Wokeness @EndWokeness: "Trump flew directly to Valdosta to deliver critical supplies to the victims of Helene. Biden was at the beach all weekend. Kamala staged a phone call photo."
Meme - "sure we can't afford to heat the house, but orange man is gone now karen *man and woman shivering in house wearing winter clothing*"
Meme - Renson Seow: "n=1000. 28% prefer him dead. And 51% of Democrats also do not want Trump's security detail to be increased after the 2 attempts in 2 months."
Time to jail Trump supporters because they endorse violence
Tulsi Gabbard 🌺 on X - "New Rasmussen poll reveals the disturbing results of the decade-long dehumanization campaign against Trump by the Democratic Party and the Propaganda Media: 28% of Democrats are quietly rooting for Trump’s assassination. This is a symptom of the moral rot and bankruptcy of today’s Democrat Party and the Propaganda Media."
Goldman To Punish GOP Leaders Who Challenged Election; JPMorgan And Citi Suspend All Political Donations - "As a reminder, none of the above entities took issue with Democrats when they challenged the Electoral College vote count in three elections over 20 years."
From 2021
Ana Kasparian on X - "Honestly it drives me crazy when Dems allege that unemployment rose by tens of millions under Trump when they *know* it was due to the covid shutdowns DEMS SUPPORTED and wanted to extend."
