President Donald Trump’s passion for McDonald’s is legendary: he once served a small mountain of Big Macs, McNuggets and French fries to a team of elite college athletes and last year pulled a shift at the fry cooker as part of his election campaign.
But the Golden Arches suddenly finds itself facing a new challenger for Trump’s1 affections in Texas: Trump Burger.
As the name suggests, the Trump Burger restaurants springing up across the Lone Star State are entirely themed around the 45th and 47th president, their exteriors lined with campaign-style flags and posters while leering cardboard cutouts of the commander-in-chief stand ready to greet patrons inside.
The menu notably offers a Trump Tower Burger in tribute to the inspiration’s storied Manhattan apartment complex, which boasts 16oz (or 1lb) of Aberdeen Angus beef patties, grilled onions, jalapenos, tomatoes, lettuce, two slices of white American cheese, onion rings and “homage” barbecue and sriracha sauce.
There’s also a Biden Burger, which consists of just 1oz (0.06lb) of beef, “old tomato “and our oldest buns, and is preposterously expensive at $50.99. However, it is not actually available because of “cheating and inflation,” the menu states.
Perhaps the most surprising detail of all is that the owner, Roland Beainy, is an immigrant to the United States from Lebanon, a keen Trump supporter undeterred by the president’s often vicious anti-migrant rhetoric at his rallies.
Beainy’s growing business has naturally begun to attract attention – and some decidedly mixed reviews for both its food and its politics.
Bao Ong, The Houston Chronicle’s restaurant critic, recently visited the franchise’s brand new Houston branch – joining existing outlets in Bellville, Flatonia and Kemah – and reported feeling overwhelmed by the sheer wealth of Trump merchandise coating every wall and uncomfortable when a fellow diner challenged him on how he voted in the 2016 election.
“I can barely remember. That was a long time ago,” Ong says he replied, laughing nervously. “I’m hungry. What did you get?’”
Ong concluded that it was “not easy to simply enjoy your food at Trump Burger” due to the intensity of the political atmosphere and was unkind about its offerings, saying the chain’s product was “consistent in its blandness” and complaining about its Philly cheesesteak’s “stingy portions.”
He did report that he enjoyed the “First Lady Chicken Sandwich” and its “simple-yet-classic” milkshake, however.
In true Trump style, Trump Burger hit out at Ong over the review with a cry of “fake news!”, its spokesperson telling Fox News Digital: “The Houston Chronicle maintains a predominantly liberal stance, so we expected nothing less than a biased take on anything bearing the Trump name.”
Brittany Britto Garley of Eater Houston also reviewed the chain’s newest branch, expressing unease over the “nationalist and personality cult aesthetics” of the branches and noting that, despite the “visual noise” of the decor, the atmosphere inside was “eerily subdued.”
“The vibe wasn’t festive – it was stiff, uncertain, and uncomfortable, particularly for me, a woman of color,” she said.
“The other diners present avoided eye contact. Even the playlist, looping music videos on wall-mounted televisions, couldn’t inject life into the space.”
After noting that the “burger patties are thick but bland, topped with a waxy cheese,” Garley concluded that the real stumbling block for customers was likely to be their own attitude toward the president.
“For those who see Trump’s legacy differently – as a man who has deported innocent people; stoked division; subverted the Constitution; and acted against values that include equality, access, and opportunity – eating here feels like an endorsement of someone whose vitriolic rhetoric has harmed, in many cases irreparably, the people he was elected to serve,” she said.
Many reviewers on Google appeared to have no such problem, proudly awarding Trump Burger five stars.
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