Watching Donald Trump serve fries at a Pennsylvania McDonald's was, well, it was hard to know what to make of it. He has spent so long in the realm of extravagance, it seems odd for him to play at humdrum fast food routine while hoping to win over the common man. Yet it is certainly a funny image, seeing our nation's former leader in an apron, all of him visible except for the pant portion, as he hands over a bag of fries to a bemused common man inside a Kia at the drive-thru window.
I guess we can say this is yet another peculiar moment in the Trump presidency.
https://www.youtube.com/live/lXK_UVX9pN8?si=EEPKN_pEqGb0HHck
Perhaps he thought this would make him appear more relatable, as if he were stepping down from the political pedestal to be "one of us." Whether it achieves that goal is debatable, but you can't deny it generates a lot of conversation. The internet's reactions were equally unrestrained. Some people joked that he was "training" for life after the election or preparing for prison. At the time, I laughed. That laughter came, however, with the realization that we are now having some pretty wild conversations that have changed a lot since the old days.
Political discourse used to center around policies. Now, it feels as if we're always on the lookout for a fresh viral moment, a political stunt, or a good meme. I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing, but it has made things feel different, as if we're in some new era where politics and entertainment are blurring together a little more and a little more often.