What you need to know
Donald Trump said he “almost knew” he would “win” the 2024 US presidential election after serving fries on the campaign trail in Pennsylvania.
“It’s an honor to stand before you as the first former McDonald’s fry chef to become president of the United States,” the 79-year-old president told the audience at the McDonald’s Impact Summit in Washington, D.C., on Monday, Nov. 17, according to USA Today.
“The people in line didn’t know anything, so I made them fries. This guy was really good. He had great wrists,” Trump said in a video shared by CBS News, mimicking the movements of a fry cook.
“It wasn’t that easy, it wasn’t the best, but I tried hard, asking them all kinds of silly questions, and it was very interesting,” he added, along with a crowd of corporate leaders, franchise owners, politicians and other stakeholders.
“It’s amazing. It’s a little different, but it’s a little complicated, right?” he added.
“That line was a long line,” Trump said of his Oct. 20, 2024, campaign stop in Feasterville, Pennsylvania. “There were 25,000 people, so somebody let them know we were coming.”
“I was standing at the window after eating my fries and all that stuff, and to be fair, people were driving up looking a little bored. I mean, they’re waiting for their burgers, okay?” he joked.
“So they drive up and they just look over like, oh! None of it. And it was fascinating. None of it, yeah, the reaction was incredible. When I saw it, it was like I knew we were going to win.”
He added that “the response was love” and that it was “amazing”.
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Trump’s appearance came five days after the House Oversight Committee released thousands of pages of documents obtained by Jeffrey Epstein’s estate. It also included numerous email exchanges between Mr. Epstein and others.
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In an exchange between Epstein and personal friend Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein refers to Trump as “the dog that didn’t bark.”
“(The victim’s name redacted) spent many hours with him at my house, his name never came up,” he added.
Maxwell replied, “I’ve been thinking about that…”
In a separate email with Trump biographer Michael Wolff, Epstein wrote about his alleged membership in Mar-a-Lago: “Mr. Trump said he asked me to leave. I have never been a member.”
“Of course he knew about the girls,” he added. Epstein was a registered sex offender and was scheduled to stand trial on charges of sex trafficking of minors before he died by suicide in 2019.
A few days after the emails were released, President Trump made this claim to reporters: “I don’t know anything about it. They should have announced it a long time ago.”
“Jeffrey Epstein and I had a very bad relationship for many years,” he added.
