Trump goes to Tony & Nick’s for a cheesesteak, completing a Philly trilogy
This was Trump's third cheesesteak stop in Philly at three different shops. That may be a record for a presumptive presidential nominee.
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Official records are wanting, but on a grill-hot Saturday, Donald J. Trump may have become the first presumptive presidential nominee in American history to have purchased cheesesteaks from three different South Philly purveyors.
Perhaps that’s not too surprising, given that the steaks — or stakes — are so high in Pennsylvania in presidential campaigns.
En route to a rally at Temple University on Saturday, Trump chose Tony & Nick’s on Oregon Avenue in deep South Philly for a steak break.
That’s the original location of Tony Luke’s, a 30-year fixture, but the name was changed to Tony & Nick’s following the family feud that inspired an IRS tax-fraud case.
Last year, Trump made an orchestrated visit to Pat’s King of Steaks after leaving a Moms for Liberty summit. While there, he was joined by members of Moms for Liberty as well as the Black Conservative Federation.
Pat’s, of course, is the longtime neighbor and rival of Geno’s, and perhaps the Republican nominee wanted to be sure to cover his bases.
Geno’s happened to be his choice during the 2016 campaign.
Geno’s was the center of controversy two decades ago when owner Joey Vento, who died in 2011, put up a sign insisting that customers order in English.
Regarding Saturday, it was unclear whether Trump ordered his steak “wit” or “witout.”
Philadelphia cheesesteak consumption (or, at least, purchase) has become a staple of presidential politics, and that likely has everything to do with the electoral value of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, which has been a jump ball in recent elections.
(And when was the last time you heard of candidates ordering a New Jersey pork roll?)
When he was a candidate, Democrat Barack Obama visited South Philly in April 2008 but begged off on eating a cheesesteak. He returned in 2010 as President Obama and did buy one at Reading Terminal Market.
Perhaps the most famous cheesesteak campaign occurred in 2002 when Sen. John Kerry had the audacity to order one with heretical Swiss cheese at Pat’s.
Our food critic Craig Laban wrote, “the Massachusetts Democrat may as well have asked for cave-aged Appenzeller.”