President Donald Trump’s fondness for fast food — especially McDonald’s — has long been part of his public image. Now, a newly published report on his health has revived a claim about one of his fast-food orders that’s drawing fresh attention.
On Thursday, Jan. 1, The Wall Street Journal released an in-depth profile titled As Signs of Aging Emerge, Trump Responds With Defiance. In the piece, Trump maintains that he is in “perfect health,” dismisses recent photographs that appear to show him nodding off during meetings, and says the frequent bruising on his hands is due to taking a higher daily dose of aspirin than doctors advise.
Near the end of the report, the Journal briefly touches on Trump’s eating habits, noting that the former president says his diet has not changed with age.
The article revisits an October 2025 podcast interview with Republican National Committee Chairman Joe Gruters, who described traveling with Trump during the 2024 campaign and being taken aback by how much he ate.
According to Gruters, Trump had “hot fries waiting for him from McDonald’s,” followed by a Filet-O-Fish, a Quarter Pounder, and a Big Mac. Gruters added that Trump may have even combined two of the sandwiches.
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That calorie-heavy order aligns with earlier accounts of Trump’s taste for McDonald’s. In Let Trump Be Trump, a 2017 book by former aides David Bossie and Corey Lewandowski, the authors recall Trump ordering “two Big Macs, two Filet-O-Fish and a chocolate malted.”
They also wrote that aboard Trump Force One, there were “four major food groups: McDonald’s, Kentucky Fried Chicken, pizza and Diet Coke.”
While the size of Trump’s McDonald’s order may surprise some, his loyalty to the chain has often been linked to his concerns about cleanliness and food safety. During a February 2016 town hall with CNN’s Anderson Cooper, Trump said he preferred the consistency of large, nationwide chains.
“I’m a very clean person. I like cleanliness,” he said at the time. “And I think you’re better off going there than someplace that you maybe have no idea where the food is coming from. It’s a certain standard. But I think the food is good.”
Bossie and Lewandowski noted that similar reasoning extended to snacks on the campaign plane, which was stocked with Trump’s favorites — Vienna Fingers, Oreos, potato chips, and pretzels — because he refused to eat from previously opened packages.
Trump also leaned into his McDonald’s fandom on the campaign trail ahead of the 2024 election. On Oct. 20, 2024, he visited Feasterville-Trevose, Pennsylvania, where he worked the drive-thru line at a local McDonald’s, handing out orders and even making fries.
“It was not that easy, but I got it sort of finally — not the greatest — but I was pouring it in, asking them all sorts of stupid questions, but it was very interesting,” he later told corporate leaders, franchise owners, and other stakeholders at the McDonald’s Impact Summit in Washington, D.C., in November 2025.
Trump claimed that more than 25,000 people waited in line to see him at the Pennsylvania stop, saying the reaction boosted his confidence in the final stretch of the campaign.
“So they drive up, like just, they look over. Whoa!” he said. “Every one of them — the response was incredible. Almost like I knew I was gonna win when I saw that.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding The Wall Street Journal’s portrayal of the president’s health.
