Donald Trump has long worn his fondness for McDonald’s as a badge of relatability, but this time he is turning that personal affection into a public stance. Framing the fast-food giant, Trump is set to use its popularity to signal his connection with ordinary Americans and reinforce his populist appeal.
“I want to give a very special thanks to McDonald’s for slashing prices for your most popular items, bringing back Extra Value Meals,” Trump told in an address to McDonald’s franchise owners, operators, and suppliers on Monday.
As part of its push to appeal to budget-conscious customers, McDonald’s reintroduced its Extra Value Meals in $5 and $8 bundles starting September, a comeback of the popular deal not seen since before the pandemic in 2019.
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“I hear you’re recommitting to the affordable options of Americans that we really know and love, all of the items that we love,” Trump, who himself stated is one of the fast-food chain’s “all-time most loyal customers,” said. “And I hear that McDonald’s is playing a very big role in getting prices down for this country.”
McDonald’s often serves as a real-world snapshot of how consumers, especially those with tighter budgets are feeling about the economy, simply because its restaurants are everywhere and its menu is deeply familiar to Americans. Its pricing trends are even studied globally through The Economist’s Big Mac Index, an informal gauge of purchasing power that compares the cost of the iconic burger in different countries. In the U.S., the price of a Big Mac reached $6.01 in July, up from $5.69 the previous year, reflecting the broader strain of inflation on everyday purchases.
However, making meals more wallet-friendly is straining McDonald’s own bottom line. The company is shouldering part of the discount to keep prices lower, a move it hopes will retain customers during a slump in consumer spending. It’s not alone as fast-casual chains like Chipotle, Sweetgreen and Cava are also feeling the pinch, reporting fewer visits from customers. Chipotle’s CEO, Scott Boatwright, has pointed to rising unemployment, resumed student loan payments and sluggish wage growth as key reasons why younger diners are pulling back on discretionary spending.
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These economic pressures like rising prices, shrinking purchasing power and tighter household budgets, have pushed affordability to the forefront of public debate, turning it into one of the defining political issues of the year.
“Affordable should be our word, not theirs,” Trump said on Monday. “Democrats get up and they talk about ‘affordability,’ ‘affordable.’ They don’t say that they had the worst inflation in history, the highest energy prices in history, everything was the worst.”
According to NBC’s grocery price tracker, everyday essentials are biting deeper into household budgets, with orange juice prices soaring 29% in a year and beef up by 13.5%. At the same time, businesses and investors are voicing frustration over what they describe as unpredictable trade moves. They say Trump’s shifting tariff strategies earning him the Wall Street nickname “TACO,” short for “Trump Always Chickens Out” are making it harder to plan for the medium and long term.
The manufacturing rebound Trump promised through aggressive tariffs hasn’t quite materialized. Despite his efforts to pressure countries that dominate global production, the sector has continued to lose steam. Between April and August alone, manufacturing shed roughly 42,000 jobs. And public sentiment isn’t much better, an NBC poll ahead of this year’s elections found that nearly two-thirds of voters felt Trump had not delivered on his pledge to tame inflation, signaling a clear gap between economic expectations and outcomes.
The Trump Administration has defended its economic approach by pointing to wage gains as a counterbalance to rising living costs. But while incomes did see some growth earlier, the rise in real wages has noticeably slowed this year. And Trump isn’t supportive of all wage increases. In a message to McDonald’s franchise owners, he urged them to “fight” higher minimum wage mandates, taking aim at California’s $20 minimum wage for fast-food workers, a policy critics say has triggered job cuts and reduced hours across the industry.