I mean, it's clear there was a reason — they wanted a distraction from all the news.
But did they give a formal explanation for the departure from past practices? Usually championship teams from all sports visit the White House several months later.
— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) January 15, 2019
I swear to actual god that it didn't click for me until just now that the burger bonanza is because the government is shutdown and the people who'd feed Clemson are furloughed. I honestly just thought Trump really wanted some dang burgers
— Hayes Brown (@HayesBrown) January 15, 2019
Was Brawndo the beverage for the evening?
— Dr. Fronc (@jenfronc) January 14, 2019
So you’re saying that the moment Trump has to personally pay for meals, he goes with the cheapest alternative? https://t.co/xcDjEg8JGB
— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) January 14, 2019
This whole fast food thing could have been charming and even a good political move if a human president had done it.
— Charles P. Pierce (@CharlesPPierce) January 14, 2019
Clemson football has an "executive performance chef" dietary coach, whose specific job is to ensure the players do not eat the very food Donald Trump is serving them in the White House tonight https://t.co/oKCj202lhf
— Timothy Burke (@bubbaprog) January 14, 2019
Since Ronald McDonald died, they’ve hired a new clown to push the product. pic.twitter.com/jU8YtzppSj
— Great Scott! ???? (@ScottFrazier19) January 14, 2019
jl
” Clemson football has an “executive performance chef” dietary coach, whose specific job is to ensure the players do not eat the very food Donald Trump is serving them in the White House tonight ”
That’s why the salads. Wow, the haters on this blog…
GregB
It figures Trump would outsource feeding White House visitors to a clown, a king, an underage girl and Mexicans.
The Dangerman
Not necessarily; I suspect Trump is Joey Chestnutting the leftovers. He’d be in pig slop heaven. With any luck, the fucker would stroke out overnight due to the gastrointestinal insult. If the final Big Mac was only half eaten, it would get a parade.
Bedtime. One of these mornings I’m gonna wake up and the news will be how the FBI went and arrested a whole bunch of people. Maybe that will be tomorrow.
Only 15 years after 9/11, we elected this POS President. Pretty amazing.
feebog
Gee, if only Trump owned, oh say a hotel, that was,nearby, like just down the street, and that hotel served, like real food. I’ll bet in that case he could have gotten them to bring some real food over. And made a few bucks doing it.
Gemina13
I don’t eat happily at Wendy’s, McDonald’s, or Burger King – there are so many better local chains – and I gag at the thought of chewing any of that shit when it’s cold. My estimation of Trump was already at rock bottom; it’s started to dig now.
You poor kids. A decent host would have had a nice dinner catered in.
jl
@The Dangerman: I clicked and watched a bit of that. Never watched the action of an actual food eating contest before. Won’t ever again.
@Gemina13: ” if only Trump owned, oh say a hotel, that was,nearby, like just down the street, and that hotel served, like real food. ” Team medical staff would nix that.
cmorenc
Did Trump really think serving Clemson players fast-food burgers @White House was a clever political move demonstrating that the White House was sharing the sacrifice of the shutdown and at the same time Trump’s personal generosity in (supposedly) paying for it out of his own pocket? That it wouldn’t come across to most people as instead demonstrating what a crass cheapskate he was as a purported self-made billionaire who could have easily afforded to hire private chefs and caterers to serve a hundred ribeye steaks instead?
Geez, what an idiot on top of being such a cheapskate.
Eljai
I just find this depressing on so many levels.
Gemina13
@cmorenc: Or some tasty East Coast seafood. I keep hearing from friends who are MA/MD natives that Pacific Northwest seafood can’t compare with what they get there. How much could it possibly cost Trump, a so-called billionaire, to cater in an oyster bar, some lobster tails and shrimps, maybe even some steamer clams, along with a choice of either chicken or steak? A few thousand?
Mnemosyne
Charlie Pierce is thinking along the same lines I was below — if Trump had done something like hiring a burger truck (the In N Out Truck in So Cal is wildly popular) to serve hot, fresh fast food to the players, it would have been charming.
But because Trump is a malignant narcissist who is pissed off that he’s not getting his way, he decided to publicly punish and embarrass the people he was supposed to be honoring so he could blame his cheapness on the Democrats. He knew that social norms would force the players and coaches to be polite to his face no matter how they really felt. That’s why he did it. Never underestimate the pettiness of a narcissist.
And as I also said earlier, I hope the player who was overheard on camera saying, “I thought it was a joke,” doesn’t get punished by the coaches for not being sufficiently grateful that Trump deigned to entertain them at all.
Earl
And it was probably nasty. None of what I saw is food that tastes good cold.
We can debate how it tastes hot, but cold… oof.
Jay
@Gemina13:
Due to the lack of Wall, all DC has is taco trucks,
Which would send the wrong message.
Mnemosyne
@cmorenc:
He thinks that the cheapness of this reflects badly on the Democrats because he publicly blamed them. And unfortunately he’s right that a large percentage of his remaining supporters, egged on by trolls and Russian bots, are going to insist that he was forced to do this by the Democrats, who apparently removed all steam trays and heat lamps from the White House. ?
By the way, this is the fine distinction that can help you figure out the difference between a sociopath and a narcissist: a sociopath learns social rules and fakes going along with them, while a narcissist learns social rules and uses them as a weapon against other people. The players and coaches couldn’t complain about being served ice-cold fast food because that would be rude, and Trump knows it. He knew that he could force them to choke it down while he watched and there was nothing they could do, because complaining would have made them the rude ones.
plato
That last Ronald McDonald tweet is perfect. What a fucking clown.
plato
@cmorenc: And not to speak of making these poor players trek in this horrible weather all the wayto DC just for his horrible fat food fest. What an asshole for a human being.
Leto
I was thinking about what the alternative would’ve been and all I could come up with was burnt steaks. He could’ve served burnt steaks and ketchup. Maybe my Tigers got off lucky… nope, both are shit shows. They deserve better than this.
@Mnemosyne: It would’ve been charming, but first you need to be human, or at least surround yourself with humans. People who have some PR training/background. This is still blowing my mind when I think about it. I think it was about a year ago that we had a Trumpov/Obama State dinner menu comparison. Obama’s was elegant and chic, showing off local chefs and their mastery. Trumpov’s was Burnt steak, mac’n’cheese, with a side of jello.
The topper would’ve been if Gordon Ramsey burst out to try to “fix” this shit show. The ratings!!! (/stabs self in eye with spoon to stop the stupidity)
Edit: not just any steaks, but Trumpov steaks. You know the shitgibbon has a few cartons stashed away.
Anne Laurie
@Leto:
Let’s be honest, Trump doesn’t think those people “deserve” steaks. Not only are a lot of them insufficiently pale, but they’re athletes, and college athletes at that — you know Trump considers them as less than fully human.
JaySinWA
This is the food Donnie likes to eat. I expect this was a trial run to replace the WH culinary staff with a bunch of in house fast food franchises. With Don getting a cut or a kickback naturally.
suffragettecity
“If it’s American, I like it.”
Liar
Brachiator
@Mnemosyne:
Trump is also a cheap jerk with no taste.
He wasn’t trying to punish or embarrass anyone. And he obviously thought he was making a grand gesture. But it was tacky and lacked imagination.
Burgers and crap pizza might be more appropriate for a Pop Warner team.
JoyceH
He might have been trying for the folksy charm of FDR treating the royals to hot dogs. One significant difference is that for the royals, hot dogs were exotic food, King George had never had one before, asked for seconds. The queen ate hers with a knife and fork. Now American college kids, despite their current executive performance chef while on the team, have certainly had McDonalds and Wendy’s and Burger King at some time in their lives. Plus,FDR could pull off folksy charm; Trump, not so much.
Brachiator
@JoyceH:
Yep. Also I don’t think that Trump has a clue about how to relate to kids or young adults. His social awkwardness reminds me of Richard Nixon.
Aleta
They travel to the WH and are given the same food they would eat on the interstate or at the mall at home. I mean… at the very least how about putting Virginia ham, VT cheese, good bread and mustard on the table. Or get Italian subs on real rolls delivered or beef briskest sandwiches or steak hoagies. Put out some horseradish and homemade relish for gods sake. Homemade brownies and pie. Every day, every single day it’s another assault on the meaning of life.
It’s feels like Trump is doing a TV commercial. (Is he planning to get those photos put on the walls of every Burger King and McD before 2020? Or get paid to do TV spots for them after he leaves the WH in disgrace?)
He sees the world as a collection of scenes for product placement. With the #1 product being him. His language isn’t English, it’s ads and stunts.
Yutsano
@Leto:
Even steaks have a shelf life in the freezer. And no way would I trust that those steaks would be anything but rubber even before that. Of course it wouldn’t keep him from serving them anyway, but I’d have to politely abstain.
How you healing up? I have an anime recommendation when you have a moment.
Tony Jay
FFS, that last image.
“Despite repeated denials of any collusion with Durmstrang before, during and after the 2016 election, it has become increasingly clear that the White House Elves are unhappy with the Trump Administration, and from these images it is now beyond doubt that MACUSA is not sending its best.”
Mnemosyne
@Brachiator:
I disagree. This is of a piece with the time when he walked up onto a stage and sat down in the chair that was reserved for the major philanthropist who was being honored that night. Trump didn’t do that because he was confused or didn’t know where to sit. He did it because he knew that the organizers didn’t dare to make a scene and ask him to leave. He used social rules against them.
Same thing here. Despite how he acts, Trump wasn’t raised in a barn. He knows what a congratulatory dinner is supposed to be like, and he deliberately chose to make a mockery of one for people who could not complain. That’s half the fun for him — he loves to insult people who have to smile and take it.
And, yes, I think racism was part of the calculation, too. He was making sure that the team knew their place and that he, the President of the United States, felt that they only deserved ice cold fast food and they should be grateful he even did that much for them.
That’s even before we get to the part that they were there to be political props for the shutdown. Normally the college national champion team comes in the spring, but the White House rushed them in only a few weeks after they won. Why? So they could stage this spectacle to try and make Trump’s enemies look bad.
Never underestimate the sheer pettiness of a narcissist and you’ll never be surprised by what they do.
JaySinWA
@Aleta: Don’t product placement fees require exclusivity in competing products? Surely Donnie didn’t screw the chains? Afterall where would his next meal come from?
Aleta
@Leto: “Trumpov’s was Burnt steak, mac’n’cheese, with a side of jello.”
And he pretended he lived on a pinnacle, pure limos and gold furniture, and we should watch, envy and aspire.
hells littlest angel
@feebog: I assume the food served in a Trump hotel would be really shitty.
sukabi
Trump inaugural committee under criminal investigation
joel hanes
@hells littlest angel:
I assume the food served in a Trump hotel would be really shitty.
You have no idea.
Apr. 2017
https://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/restaurants/article144261894.html
Aleta
“Trump paid for it out of his own pocket.” You mean like when he said he’d given a million to a veteran’s fund, or when gave checks out on camera that in reality never arrived?
Aleta
@JaySinWA: I picture him contacting them later; offering his autograph on big framed photos or his endorsement on TV to the highest bidder. Then claiming that they fought over him, each begging him for the honor. And planning to plaster ads for himself on the customer side of the counters.
sukabi
‘Senior Trump Official’ On Shutdown: ‘We Do Not Want Most Employees To Return’
scav
I can almost hear the comments already of the economically anxious complaining about those uppity football players turning up their noses at a supremely kind and personal (he bought the fries!) gesture and just who are these un’merkan eeee-leets mocking real MERKAN food as eaten by Real Once and Futurely Great Merkans and why do these demoncrats and fake media hate Merkan corporations!?
Aleta
@sukabi: Here’s to Nune’s sleeping pill fail tonight.
Brachiator
@Mnemosyne:
I think you are over-thinking it, and trying to fit Trump into the box labeled “narcissist.” But more may be in play.
Trump is cheap. Very, very cheap. He hates spending his own money, but still wants to be “the guy.”
He insults or is petty to people he thinks has wronged him. This does not apply in any way to the Clemson players. In fact, unlike pro teams, they were happy for the invitation.
Why did he rush the event? I don’t know. Maybe because he is a sap. Also, a delegation of Democrats was recently received very warmly in Puerto Rico. They even got to see “Hamilton.” And Fox News paints the trip as a vacation. Maybe Trump was just jealous. Or trying too hard to show that he is a real American.
Also, the racism angle doesn’t quite work. Most of the players, friends and guests I’ve seen in photos are white.
Trump tries to hide it, but he is rigid and awkward, and has almost a fetish for simple foods, the same crap always prepared the same way. He can’t even pretend to be sophisticated. He instead tries to play this off as being plain spoken and direct, but he really is pathetic.
He knows sports team owners, but doesn’t seem to know anything about sports and doesn’t enjoy anything except golf. I could also imagine a normal president bringing his son to hang out with college football champs and have a burger with them. Was Trump’s son around anywhere?
sukabi
@Aleta: fail in he can’t sleep or never wakes up?
wasabi gasp
Show up at the WH for a Trump photo op back pat, you deserve to eat shit.
Betty Cracker
My damn dogs woke me up by standing on the bed and spinning around until the covers formed a vortex around them. This wasn’t a coordinated action; one performed her maneuver in the center of the bed and the other a bit later on the lower half. But the result was two dogs comfortably swaddled in blankets in the center of the bed and two humans left shivering with a strip of sheets at either edge.
Aleta
@sukabi: Quotes I saw from some deep state libertarian about the shutdown on twitter. (I wrote it down but not his name.)
I also think some of them are hoping for strikes and firings, of TSA workers too. A repeat of their happiness at the story of the air traffic controllers strike Reagan firing them.
They hate unions and hate the TSA violations of individual rights.
Aleta
@Betty Cracker: Self-taught stupid pet tricks
OzarkHillbilly
I’d have ordered pizza and beer myself.
OzarkHillbilly
@Betty Cracker: Your lucky they let you stay in the bed.
SiubhanDuinne
“Thabj you very much everybody.”
He even talks in typos ?
sukabi
@SiubhanDuinne: that was another denture slip….or tongue twist from over use of hi stimulant of choice.
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
He said he was serving Burger King because they’re a great American company. They’re ?Canadian?.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@OzarkHillbilly: I woke up once in the middle of the night on the floor because my Cocker Spaniel decided to stretch her legs.
?BillinGlendaleCA
I spent some of my xmas bucks and got a new filter for my camera, Downtown LA shot with a 4 point star filter.
OzarkHillbilly
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Between my wife and the Woofmeister, I am either trapped under a suffocating layer of blankets, or limited to a narrow scrap of sheet with my bare ass hanging out. No in between.
OzarkHillbilly
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Pretty cool.
hervevillechaizelounge
@Betty Cracker:
I doubt it would effect both of your beasties simultaneously, but my dog has idiopathic vestibular disease and one of the first symptoms I noticed was a tendency to whirl like a dervish on my bed while I was sleeping.
I half expected to wake up and find him wearing a fez and prayer shawl:(
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Do you use a tripod? How is the photo so stable?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@OzarkHillbilly: TMI.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@OzarkHillbilly: Thanks.
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: Yup, gotta use a tripod for night shots.
wasabi gasp
@OzarkHillbilly: No In-Between ass tats are kinda archaic, buddy.
SFAW
@OzarkHillbilly:
Blech?
SFAW
I don’t believe for a second that he actually paid for it. And, for a guy who claims to be a billionaire, he is one cheap prick. I told my wife about this last night, her jaw dropped.
I’m torn between this whole thing being a stunt to try to score points for the shutdown, and his over-the-top cheapskateness. [I know, I know: Por que no los dos? ]
I don’t make a tenth of what he’s grifting in violation of the emolunents clause, and I would still buy better meals for the team (or anyone eklse I was treating) than he EVER would.
SFAW
And, by the way: I thought they made “function” tents out of white-colored material, not that dark shit he’s wearing. He’d make Sidney Greenstreet look like a 90-pound weakling.
I guess it must be the camera playing tricks, because Ronny Jackson told me Fuckhead’s BMI is sub-30.
Ken
@SFAW: Maybe Dr. Jackson accidentally used the weight in kilograms for that calculation.
jimmiraybob
There’s nothing better than cold to luke-warm fast food. Yum.
jimmiraybob
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch:
It’s the “king” part that he finds irresistible.
BretH
@joel hanes: So true:
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.vanityfair.com/news/2016/12/trump-grill-review/amp
Armadillo
In addition to the point made by Kevin Kruse in the post (and some commenters) that the timing of this ceremony is off, one of Kruse’s Twitter commenters made another good point: sports champion visits to the White House may not normally include a meal. I haven’t followed the last few visits closely, but don’t recall Obama or Bush the Lesser arranging any meals.
It’s also extra wacky that they rushed the visit super early so that it would take place during 1) a shutdown and 2) a snowstorm (or at least the DC equivalent)
Sasha
Obama may have been our first black president, but Trump is almost certainly our first ghetto president.
Ken
@BretH:
So in December of 2016, the Vanity Fair restaurant reviewer had worked out what many professional political pundits still haven’t grasped.
Ruckus
@Brachiator:
Is it social awkwardness or the inability to see any one other than himself as a real human, the top of the heap, the best example? He looks in a mirror and sees a 27 yr old extremely wealthy stud on a movie poster, iow everything but reality.
Ruckus
@Sasha:
Hey! That’s not fair. Ghettos have far more class than drumpf.
drumpf is like pigpen, but on a much larger scale and far worse. Pigpen had social skills, understood who he was, was happy just to be included in the gang, and was just that way. And a poor child during the depression. drumpf goes out of his way to be as low a human as he is.
Original Lee
@Brachiator: @Mnemosyne: Exactly. I was strongly reminded of his dinner with Romney.
Miss Bianca
@GregB: LOL!!
The Moar You Know
@hells littlest angel: Pains me to say this: You’d be wrong. I was surprised too. Stayed at the Trump Las Vegas in 2014. Super cheap rooms at the time. Wasn’t expecting much. Certainly was not expecting a room the size of my condo with a bathroom the size of an average US living room. Food through room service was excellent. Once you got out of the first three floors, which were pumped full of some sort of “signature scent” and wall-to-wall Russians just hanging out (not kidding about that and it struck me as really weird at the time, although they do have a cultural affinity for tacky gold-plated shit, which is what I chalked it up to at the time) it was the second nicest hotel I’ve ever been in.
Best part: no gambling. They wouldn’t give him a gambling license. So out of spite, he left the other sixty-something acres of the property undeveloped. Looks like shit.
Fairmont Orchid in Kailua-Kona is the best hotel on the planet, if you were wondering.
Tenar Arha
@?BillinGlendaleCA: That’s very neat. & that photo is really pretty with the star effect. Thanks!