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Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images

Donald Trump and Bill Clinton have something in common. No, not that. The two presidents are both huge fans of McDonald’s. But while Clinton was merely known for frequenting the fast-food restaurant (before his quadruple-bypass surgery), Trump has made his passion for McDonald’s an even bigger part of his presidency, serving Big Macs at the White House and “working” at a McDonald’s drive-through (for 20 minutes, while the restaurant was closed) to troll 2024 opponent Kamala Harris.

So it’s no surprise that Trump decided the McDonald’s Impact Summit in Washington — a gathering of McDonald’s owners, operators, and suppliers — was the perfect venue to tout his affordability message. And knowing what we do about Trump, it’s also no surprise that he didn’t actually explain in any detail how he’s going to help Americans who are struggling with day-to-day costs. During his Monday address, Trump veered between denying that affordability problems exist in his “Golden Age of America” and blaming higher costs on Joe Biden.

So what did Trump talk about for nearly an hour, if not the cost-of-living issues affecting millions of Americans (and the GOP’s chances in the midterms)? The usual mix of self-aggrandizing falsehoods, weird attacks on innocent bystanders, and barely decipherable nonsense. Here are some of the stupidest moments from his speech.

Telling McDonald’s employers to fight minimum-wage increases

While Trump’s prepared remarks included many vague or exaggerated claims about how he’s made life more affordable for everyday Americans, at one point he did let it slip that he doesn’t want the “little guy” to have too much money in his pocket.

“Wages for hourly workers are rising at the fastest pace in 60 years. The minimum-wage thing is something you’ll have to be talking about. You’re going to have to fight it,” he told the franchise owners.

Trump to McDonald’s Franchise Owners: The minimum wage thing… you’re going to have to fight… You people probably know the impact good or bad. Let your local congressmen know about it. pic.twitter.com/mCCrgHAQmt

— Acyn (@Acyn) November 17, 2025

Claiming his McDonald’s “skit” was the most-Googled thing ever

Trump repeatedly came back to how much fun he had “working” as a McDonald’s fry cook during the 2024 campaign. At one point, he claimed that Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin told him his “skit” was the most-searched thing ever.

“They called me the following day, after I did that McDonald’s little skit — because it wasn’t a commercial, you got it for nothing,” he said. “And I didn’t know them. They told me … that it received more hits than anything else in the history of Google and that record, it still stands.”

This claim makes absolutely no sense, but conveniently, it’s impossible to verify because Trump offered no details on what “it” meant. Does he think “Trump McDonald’s” is the most-searched term in the history of the search engine? Is he referring to the page views for some campaign video? Who knows!

Rambling about renaming the Gulf of Mexico

While praising himself for making Coca-Cola switch to using cane sugar in the U.S. (or really, just offer a sugar variety alongside the usual high-fructose-corn-syrup version), Trump abruptly pivoted to praising himself for renaming the “Gulf of America.”

“I said, ‘You’ve got to go to sugar,’ just like I said, ‘Why is the Gulf of Mexico called the Gulf of Mexico?’ I said, ‘We’re changing the name.’ And now it’s the Gulf of America,” Trump said.

Does this have anything to do with McDonald’s? Trump sort of acknowledged it doesn’t, while making the “cuckoo” sign with his finger, and continuing his musings.

“It has nothing to do with McDonald’s, but maybe it does. Because it’s very nice. We have 92 percent of the shoreline. I don’t think I made a lot of friends in Mexico.”

Taking an unprovoked shot at Tom Cruise

Incredibly, the Gulf of Mexico tale wasn’t Trump’s most off-topic point. For some reason, the speech to McDonald’s owners also included an elaborate tale about the military strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities in June. And somehow this led to Trump mocking Tom Cruise for being short. The president said the pilots who flew the B-2 bombers — including the female pilot? — were “all handsome” like the movie star, except for one thing.

“They looked like Tom Cruise. They really do,” Trump said. “I don’t want to be a wise guy and say ‘But taller.’ I’m not gonna say that. No.”

Mocking Biden for thinking “the American Dream” is three words

Calling your enemy senile for counting incorrectly, while making the exact same error: You don’t even want to get in that situation!

Doing a weird fish-filet impression

What does a Filet-O-Fish sound like? “Khhhh,” apparently.

Admitting his remarks are more “weave” than actual speech

Is it great that we’ve devolved to the point where the president of the United States is just making odd noises during his speeches? Perhaps not. But at least Trump is at least somewhat aware that his remarks are all over the place. He noted at one point that he didn’t care what McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski did with a signed copy of his prepared remarks, which he’d given him backstage.

“You can either hang it, you can give it to somebody, or throw it away, I don’t care,” Trump said. “But I don’t stay on the speech too long, anyway. Actually those speeches aren’t too accurate to what I give.”

7 Stupid Moments From Trump’s McDonald’s Summit Speech

7 Stupid Moments From Trump’s McDonald’s Summit Speech