Did a "food for everyone" headline show Donald Trump had left a McDonald's location without paying the bill in 2024, as a post on X suggested? No, that's not true: The headline appeared in a 2023 article published by The Guardian after he had left a Miami restaurant. The article had nothing to do with Trump's October 2024 appearance at a McDonald's in Feasterville, Pennsylvania.
The claim appeared in a post on X on October 20, 2024, (archived here) that featured a screenshot of a headline that lacked important identifying information. A caption with the post read:
The MAGA McDonald's franchisee who let Trump use his restaurant for a publicity stunt, was left paying the bill for meals that Trump said he would pay for.
This is how the post appeared at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot taken Wed Oct 23 09:49:11 2024 UTC)
The post on X came after former President Trump appeared at a McDonald's restaurant in Feasterville, Pennsylvania, on October 20, 2024. It suggests that he left the restaurant responsible for "the bills for meals that Trump said he would pay for."
Trump posted videos and photos to his Instagram account on October 20, 2024. They showed him in the McDonald's kitchen wearing an apron and standing behind a counter (archived here), operating a fryer (archived here) and waving at a drive-thru window (archived here). Getty Images hosts additional photos of Trump's visit (archived here).
A reverse image search (archived here) of the post on X revealed that while the shared headline is genuine, The Guardian published it on June 15, 2023 -- more than a year before Trump's Feasterville appearance. The screenshot shared to X lacks important information identifying the 2023 restaurant as Versailles, a Cuban establishment in Miami.
This is how the original article (archived here) appeared on The Guardian's web browser:
(Source: The Guardian screenshot taken Wed Oct 23 21:28:19 2024 UTC)
In 2023, The Guardian reported that Trump had declared "Food for everyone!" after walking inside "Miami's famous Cuban restaurant." The publication wrote:
It was a promise, though, that the former US president did not keep, according to the Miami New Times, despite supporters also wishing him a happy birthday, one day early.
However, The Miami New Times reported (archived here) on June 14, 2023, that a "knowledgeable source" stated the former president left after about 10 minutes without ordering any food, leaving "no time for anyone to eat anything, much less place an order" (archived here).
More Lead Stories fact checks of claims mentioning Donald Trump are here.
Other Lead Stories fact checks of claims related to the 2024 U.S. presidential election are here.
