Trump and Harris get roasted and toasted as campaigns ignite passions – Times of India

WASHINGTON: It was a day of drama, spectacle — and roasts and toasts – in the US Presidential election campaign. Donald Trump jumped from the fryer into the fire as his attempt to troll Kamala Harris by visiting a McDonald’s misfired. At the opposite end, Kamala Harris got baked when her effort to woo the Black Christian vote by visiting a church on her birthday was panned by MAGA faithful.
The hashtag #McIdiot, promoted by Trump’s niece Mary Trump among others, sizzled across social media as the MAGA supremo made a show of preparing french fries at a McDonald’s — except it turned out the outlet was closed for business to allow him to stage the event with handpicked supporters. That too at a franchise that had failed a health inspection in March.
Critics were quick to note that Trump, a big fan of McDonald’s and a self-professed germophobe, went straight to work without washing his hands. He wore an apron over his shirt and tie but did not wear gloves or a hairnet during his visit, asserting his hands were “nice and clean.”
The taunts that followed were biting. “Oh the delicious irony of Trump pretending to work at a McDonald’s, considering that most franchisees have policies against hiring convicted felons,” chirped one troll. A meme showed him asking a customer, “Would you like lies with that?” Another said “It’s like training for his job in the prison commissary.”
“Perhaps no stunt in the history of U.S. politics deserves more ridicule than the grotesquely embarrassing mummery Trump put on at a Pennsylvania McDonald’s today … The McDonald’s was closed, the customers were fake, Trump did nothing.” Seth Abramson, a journalist and lawyer, wrote on X. And from Harris’ running mate Tim Walz — “This guy spent decades stiffing workers pay, cut overtime benefits for millions of people, and opposed any effort to raise the minimum wage. You know who has actually worked at McDonald’s, joined workers on picket lines, and fights for working people? @KamalaHarris.”
Trump’s MAGA followers meantime took aim at Harris’ visit to a church in Atlanta to woo evangelical Christians, pointing to an episode the previous day where a protester who shouted “Jesus in Lord” was told “You are at the wrong rally!” “You MOCK GOD in your Wisconsin rally and now you PANDER Christians in Church for votes? You are a FRAUD!” steamed one Trump loyalist while others questioned the betrayal of liberal values of keeping church and politics apart.
But at the rousing event, the congregation toasted Harris with a rendering of Stevie Wonder’s Happy Birthday, as she urged them to vote as part of a nationwide drive known as “souls to the polls.” The push came amid polls showing her support from the young black male demographic has diminished, with some of it drifting towards Trump although she has majority support.
Meanwhile, Trump also a facepalm from Peggy Palmer, the daughter of legendary golfer Arnold Palmer, about whose manhood the MAGA megaphone had mused about at a campaign rally, when she said the MAGA man had taken a “poor choice of approach” towards remembering her father.
She was more restrained in her criticism than in 2018, when she told The Sporting News that her dad, shortly before his death, had been “appalled” by Trump’s behavior during his 2016 presidential run. “My dad didn’t like people who act like they’re better than other people. He didn’t like it when people were nasty and rude. My dad had no patience for people who demean other people in public. He had no patience for people who are dishonest and cheat. He was appalled by Trump’s lack of civility and what he began to see as Trump’s lack of character.” she said.
The multiple smackdowns and roasts did not appear to make the slightest difference to the candidates in pre-poll surveys: they showed them in a dead heat across the battleground states.