Donald Trump is known for a lot of things,
and one is his serious love of fast food. You might even call it an obsession. But how did this obsession start and why has
is carried with him all the way to the presidency? Here's the secret behind Trump's love of fast
food. “How do you do it? What's your secret?" "Mm-hmm." If you ever watched commercial television
in the '90s, you'll be all too familiar with Donald Trump's fascination with fast food
and junk food. Long before he was even thinking about a presidential
bid, he was appearing in commercials and promoting fast food chains. “We eat our pizza the wrong way!" "Crust first!" “Why do New Yorkers have such big mouths?" "Go big, or go home!" "Because they eat big pizza!" And Trump's habit only got worse during the
presidential campaign. It's notoriously difficult for presidential
candidates to get a healthy meal on the campaign trail, which often leads to overeating. In 2012, for instance, Mitt Romney's campaign
coined the term "slunch" to describe the second lunch they would eat each day — though of
course, the proper term for a meal between lunch and dinner is "dunch." “What about second breakfast?" "I don't think he knows about second breakfast,
Pip." So it's no surprise that in their book Let
Trump Be Trump, former campaign workers Corey Lewandowski and David Bossie claimed that
Trump had four major food groups: "McDonald's, Kentucky Fried Chicken, pizza,
and Diet Coke." Trump's love of fast food is also a strategic
choice. According to Republican strategist Russ Schriefer,
Trump uses fast food to make himself seem like a regular guy, instead of a billionaire
celebrity. "There's nothing more American and more of-the-people
than fast food. It is the peculiarity of the brand that he's
able to be on his multimillion-dollar jet with the gold and black branding and colors,
and at the same time eat KFC — and what makes it perfect is he does it all with a
knife and fork, while reading The Wall Street Journal." Even Kellyanne Conway has claimed that "it goes with his authenticity. […] I don't think Hillary Clinton would
be eating Popeye's biscuits and fried chicken." And when a BBC reporter asked one-time White
House communications director Anthony Scaramucci According to Michael Wolff, author of Fire
and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, Trump has "had a longtime fear of being poisoned, one
reason why he liked to eat at McDonald's — nobody knew he was coming and the food was safely
premade." That's apparently a stark contrast to other
eateries which he fears may seek vengeance upon him via culinary malfeasance. "I don't want to go into a restaurant and
say, Mr. Trump would like a hamburger to go. Now, I don't know what they're going to do
to that hamburger. If they like me, I’m happy." Though Trump's iophobia existed long before
he became president, Things have been taken to a new level now
that he's in the White House, where staff members are prohibited from touching his toothbrush
and other personal items. And when asked if there were people in the
White House she distrusts, first lady Melania Trump told ABC News, "You always need to watch your back." No wonder Trump keeps turning to figures everyone
can trust instead! It's not just poison that Trump fears, it's
also germs. Trump revealed in his 1997 book The Art of
the Comeback that he's a germaphobe, writing, "I happen to be a clean hands freak. I feel much better after I thoroughly wash
my hands, which I do as much as possible." "I'm also very much of a germaphobe, by the
way, believe me." He even admitted to Howard Stern, "It could be a psychological problem." So it makes sense that Trump prefers fast
food, which he can get at the takeout window and eat in the safety of his own plane or
luxury high rise. In a 2016 rally in South Carolina, Trump praised
fast food joints for being so clean. "One bad hamburger, you can destroy McDonald's. One bad hamburger and you take Wendy's and
all these other places and they're out of business." He further explained, "I'm a very clean person. I like cleanliness. And I think you're better off going there
than maybe some place that you have no idea where the food's coming from." According to a 2018 report by Bloomberg, "Trump weighed in borderline obese at his
first presidential physical in January. […] At 239 pounds and 6 feet, 3 inches tall,
Trump measured just one pound below obese under guidelines issued by the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention." "You heard the doctor. The president has passed every exam we gave
him. Physical exam. Mental exam. The Tide Pod challenge? Crushed it!" After the exam, Trump's doctor recommended
he cut back on his fast food habit. And Trump also has some peculiar ways of trying
to make his meals healthier. For instance, he reportedly skips the bun
when he eats fast food sandwiches. Similarly, he claims that when eating pizza,
he skips the dough and just eats the toppings. And he always opts for Diet Coke with his
meal. Ordering a diet soda with a fast food meal
so he can pretend it's healthy? Maybe the President is like the rest of us
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