The Pennsylvania McDonald's where former President Donald Trump staged a campaign photo-op was hit with scores of bad reviews on Yelp, prompting the company to temporarily disable comments.
Trump's visit was more of a publicity stunt than anything else—and was predominantly set up so he could promote his false claim that Vice President Kamala Harris did not work at McDonald's in college.
The restaurant was closed to the public during his appearance, and the motorists he served at the drive-thru were pre-screened by the U.S. Secret Service and positioned before his arrival. No one placed an order; instead, attendees received whatever Trump handed out.
He spent roughly five minutes at the fry station and about 15 minutes at the drive-thru window, most of that time answering questions from reporters.
And almost as soon as pictures of Trump "working" circulated online, reviewers began trolling him by dropping a flurry of fake reviews.
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Yelp issued the following response addressing the phony reviews:
“This business recently received increased public attention, which often means people come to this page to post their views on the news."
"While we don’t take a stand one way or the other when it comes to this incident, we’ve temporarily disabled the posting of content to this page as we work to investigate whether the content you see here reflects actual consumer experiences rather than the recent events."
But people loved them—and the stunt has exposed both Trump and McDonald's to criticism.
McDonald's has made efforts to distance itself from Trump's stunt.
In an internal message viewed by CNBC and confirmed by a source familiar with the matter, the company said it "does not endorse candidates for elected office and that remains true in this race for the next President."
Trump's stunt was a coordinated response to Harris, who has repeatedly said she worked at the McDonald’s on Central Avenue in Alameda, California, during the summer of 1983 while she was a student at Howard University. Her duties included operating the cash register and managing the fry and ice cream machines.
Although neither Harris nor McDonald’s have provided evidence confirming her employment, it’s unlikely that a brief summer job from 40 years ago would have resulted in any lasting records.
To that end, McDonald's said that though it is not a "political brand," "we’ve been proud to hear former President Trump’s love for McDonald’s and Vice President Harris’s fond memories working under the Arches."
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