Trump’s latest feeble plan to connect with everyday workers? Pulling a 30-minute shift at McDonald’s. | The Homestretch

Mark your calendar. Donald Trump said he is going to work at a McDonald’s next week.

Trump, a loyal McDonald’s customer, keeps talking about the fast-food chain since Vice President Kamala Harris referenced her summer job there while in college. Harris used her experience to connect with workers trying to live on minimum wage jobs and contrasted it with Trump’s pampered upbringing.

Now, Trump wants to flip burgers.

“I think I’m gonna go to a McDonald’s next week,” Trump said at a rally in Western Pennsylvania on Monday. “I’m gonna go to a McDonald’s, and I’m gonna work the french fry job for about a half an hour, I wanna see how it is.”

Since Pennsylvania’s minimum wage is $7.25 an hour, Trump’s 30-minute gig wouldn’t earn him enough to buy a Happy Meal. While there, Trump can tell his coworkers why he opposed raising the minimum wage.

That’s if Trump actually shows up. At age 78, it may be his first honest day’s work. After all, Trump is a nepo baby whose first job was working for his rich daddy. He never left the family business, beyond dabbling in reality TV, which reportedly was a mirage of his true business acumen.

Trump’s only other job was president. Normally, that is a serious and stressful undertaking, but Trump turned it into light duty. Most days he got to the office at the crack of 11 a.m. He spent most of the four years golfing, tweeting, lying, and watching Fox News.

Trump never built the much-heralded wall, couldn’t pull off “Infrastructure Week,” and didn’t read the daily intelligence briefs. In his downtime, he shared classified information with Russia, increased the deficit bigly, tried to shake down the president of Ukraine, mismanaged the pandemic, and orchestrated an attempted coup.

When Trump left office, the economy was in tatters, unemployment was soaring, and the country was in lockdown.

So, a stint at McDonald’s may be more Trump’s speed.

Trump and his MAGA allies devoted a lot of hyperbole to railing against the so-called Biden crime family. A lot of time and taxpayer money went into investigating President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, which resulted in a felony conviction for lying about his drug use on a gun purchase application — and not much else to show for it.

Meanwhile, there has been no outrage as the Trump family grifts along. Trump made millions off his time in the White House. Foreign governments paid him millions, creating a conflict of interest. China alone spent more than $5 million to stay at Trump properties.

Trump’s attorney general, Bill Barr, shut down a federal investigation into whether the former president received a $10 million payment from the government of Egypt. After leaving office in disgrace, Trump has continued to cash in, hawking branded Bibles, sneakers, coins, and other tchotchkes.

But perhaps the most egregious abuse was funneled through Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who flitted around the Oval Office and met with foreign leaders despite getting rejected for a security clearance.

Kushner cozied up to Saudi Arabian ruler Mohammed bin Salman, who approved the assassination of dissident Jamal Khashoggi in 2018. Mohammed, in turn, reportedly bragged that Kushner was “in his pocket.”

Indeed, rather than shun the murderous leader, Kushner made sure Trump rolled out the red carpet. One giant favor: Trump bypassed Congress and declared a national emergency to push through an $8 billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia.

After leaving the White House, Kushner formed a private equity company. Even though he had never worked in private equity, Saudi Arabia invested $2 billion in Kushner’s nascent firm.

At a House hearing this week, it was disclosed that Kushner has not made any profits in the three years, but has been paid at least $112 million in fees.

The sleazy wheeling and dealing serves as a reminder: If Trump is reelected, he will use the White House not to help average citizens, but to line his pockets.

As president, Trump stacked the U.S. Supreme Court with three extreme justices — thanks to some underhanded help from U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell.

Those justices joined the three other conservatives on the court to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade decision — despite several testifying under oath at their confirmation hearings about the importance of precedent and settled law.

The fallout from the Supreme Court’s misguided Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision is beginning to take hold, as a number of states have banned or restricted access to abortions. A Texas woman, Amanda Zurawski, almost died because she couldn’t get an abortion. Other women have shared their horror stories.

At least two women in Georgia have died because abortion bans delayed medical care. Excellent reporting by ProPublica showed how the deaths were preventable, if not for the change in the law.

It is just the beginning. More deaths and injuries to women will occur thanks to Trump, who boasted about getting rid of a woman’s right to make her own health-care decisions.

That is Trump’s legacy.

But it can be undone in this election if Democrats win control of the White House and Congress. Harris promised to sign legislation to make Roe the law of the land. She went one step further this week in supporting the elimination of the Senate filibuster to pass abortion rights legislation.

That leaves the fate of women’s health and rights in the hands of voters.

The Homestretch is an occasional column by members of The Inquirer Editorial Board exploring the stakes in the 2024 presidential race.