When you're President of the United States, pretty much everything you do will be analyzed by the public, including your eating habits. Donald Trump has quite a penchant for fast food, which many have mocked in recent years, and there are actually a few reasons as to why he prefers Big Macs and Filets-O-Fish to a good steak or caviar. Not only does this multi-millionaire who has always flown on private planes think that fast food makes him relatable, but he's also worried about being poisoned by White House chefs. Let's take a look at why Donald Trump eats so much fast food.
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00:00Donald Trump is known for a lot of things, and one is his serious love of fast food.
00:06You might even call it an obsession. But how did this obsession start,
00:10and why has it carried with him all the way to the presidency?
00:13Here's the secret behind Trump's love of fast food.
00:17How do you do it? What's your secret?"
00:23If you ever watched commercial television in the 90s, you'll be all too familiar with
00:27Donald Trump's fascination with fast food and junk food. Long before he was even
00:32thinking about a presidential bid, he was appearing in commercials and promoting fast food chains.
00:38We eat our pizza the wrong way.
00:39Crust first.
00:40Why do New Yorkers have such big mouths?
00:43Go big or go home.
00:44Because they ate big pizza.
00:46And Trump's habit only got worse during the presidential campaign.
00:49It's notoriously difficult for presidential candidates to get a healthy meal on the
00:53campaign trail, which often leads to overeating. In 2012, for instance,
00:58Mitt Romney's campaign coined the term slunch to describe the second lunch they would eat each day.
01:03Though, of course, the proper term for a meal between lunch and dinner is dunch.
01:07What about second breakfast?
01:13I don't think he knows about second breakfast, Pip.
01:15So it's no surprise that in their book Let Trump Be Trump,
01:19former campaign workers Corey Lewandowski and David Bossie claimed that Trump had four
01:24major food groups — McDonald's, Kentucky Fried Chicken, pizza, and Diet Coke.
01:29Trump's love of fast food is also a strategic choice. According to Republican strategist
01:34Russ Stryver, Trump uses fast food to make himself seem like a regular guy
01:38instead of a billionaire celebrity. There's nothing more American and more of the people
01:42than fast food. It is the peculiarity of the brand that he's able to be on his
01:46multi-million dollar jet with the gold and black branding and colors, and at the same time eat KFC.
01:52And what makes it perfect is he does it all with a knife and fork while reading The Wall Street
01:57Journal. Even Kellyanne Conway has claimed that it goes with his authenticity. I don't think
02:02Hillary Clinton would be eating Popeye's biscuits and fried chicken. And when a BBC reporter asked
02:07one-time White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci what part of Trump is not elite,
02:12he said,
02:14"'So many things about the president.' He's a celebrity. He's a billionaire. How about the
02:16cheeseburgers? How about the pizza that we're eating?' Everyone eats cheeseburgers and pizzas.
02:20What are you talking about?' According to Michael Wolff, author of Fire and Fury,
02:24Inside the Trump White House, Trump has had a longtime fear of being poisoned — one reason
02:29why he liked to eat at McDonald's. Nobody knew he was coming, and the food was safely pre-made.
02:34That's apparently a stark contrast to other eateries which he fears may seek vengeance
02:38upon him via culinary malfeasance. I don't want to go into a restaurant and say,
02:43Mr. Trump would like a hamburger to go. Now, I don't know what they're gonna do
02:47to that hamburger. If they like me, I'm happy."
02:50Though Trump's iophobia existed long before he became president,
02:53things have been taken to a new level now that he's in the White House,
02:57where staff members are prohibited from touching his toothbrush and other personal items.
03:01And when asked if there were people in the White House she distrusts,
03:04First Lady Melania Trump told ABC News,
03:07"'You always need to watch your back.'"
03:09No wonder Trump keeps turning to figures everyone can trust instead.
03:13It's not just poison that Trump fears. It's also germs. Trump revealed in his
03:181997 book The Art of the Comeback that he's a germophobe, writing,
03:22"'I happen to be a clean hands freak. I feel much better after I thoroughly wash my hands,
03:26which I do as much as possible.'"
03:28"'I'm also very much of a germophobe, by the way. Believe me.'"
03:33He even admitted to Howard Stern,
03:35It could be a psychological problem. So it makes sense that Trump prefers fast food,
03:39which he can get at the takeout window and eat in the safety of his own plane or luxury high-rise.
03:44In a 2016 rally in South Carolina, Trump praised fast food joints for being so clean.
03:50"'One bad hamburger, you can destroy McDonald's. One bad hamburger,
03:54you take Wendy's and all these other places, and they're out of business.'"
03:58He further explained,
04:00"'I'm a very clean person. I like cleanliness. And I think you're
04:03better off going there than maybe someplace that you have no idea where the food's coming from.'"
04:07According to a 2018 report by Bloomberg, Trump weighed in borderline obese at his
04:12first presidential physical in January. At 239 pounds and 6 feet 3 inches tall,
04:18Trump measured just one pound below obese,
04:20under guidelines issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
04:24"'You heard the doctor. The president has passed every exam we gave him. Physical exam,
04:29mental exam. The Tide Pod Challenge crushed it.'"
04:33After the exam, Trump's doctor recommended he cut back on his fast food habit.
04:37And Trump also has some peculiar ways of trying to make his meals healthier.
04:42For instance, he reportedly skips the bun when he eats fast food sandwiches.
04:46Similarly, he claims that when eating pizza, he skips the dough and just eats the toppings.
04:51And he always opts for Diet Coke with his meal.
04:54Ordering a diet soda with a fast food meal so he can pretend it's healthy?
04:58Maybe the president is like the rest of us after all.