An ally of Donald Trump has described in detail the fast-food order he says the president favors from McDonald’s, recounting on a podcast that Trump combined two of three different sandwiches and washed the meal down with an orange soda while hot fries were handed to him as he boarded a plane. Joe Gruters, a Florida state senator who in August became chairman of the Republican National Committee, said the episode stood out as one of the most unexpected moments he witnessed while traveling with Trump. Asked to share “one of the funniest or unexpected things” he had seen on the trail, Gruters replied: “The amount, and what the president eats,” before listing a Filet-O-Fish, a Quarter Pounder and a Big Mac, adding, “I think he combined two of them,” and noting the orange drink. “I had two of the sandwiches and I was sick as a dog for like 24 hours,” he said, joking that “McDonald’s should pay the president with what he eats.” He said Trump’s fries were timed to be hot and delivered into his hands as he boarded.
Gruters spoke on the “Chambers, Changes & Conversations” podcast, which is produced by a local government office and typically features discussions with public officials. In the clip circulated this week, he described seeing the meal assembled during air travel with Trump and stressed that the volume and the presentation surprised him. Several outlets republished the remarks and the quotations, including the line about feeling “sick as a dog,” and highlighted the detail that Trump departed from his usual Diet Coke to drink an orange soda, though Gruters did not specify whether it was Fanta or Hi-C.
The account adds a fresh anecdote to a long public record documenting Trump’s preference for fast food in general and McDonald’s in particular. During the 2016 campaign and his first term, aides and reporters repeatedly noted his reliance on chain restaurants while traveling. A 2017 campaign memoir by Corey Lewandowski and David Bossie, “Let Trump Be Trump,” stated that a typical McDonald’s order for Trump consisted of “two Big Macs, two Filet-O-Fish, and a chocolate malted,” a combination that business and political publications calculated at roughly 2,400 calories. Those details have been cited periodically in coverage of Trump’s diet and resurfaced after Gruters’ comments as a point of comparison with the newer “Franken-burger” description.
Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, wrote in his 2022 memoir that he took comfort when Trump, then recovering from COVID-19 at the White House in 2020, asked for one of his “favorite meals: a McDonald’s Big Mac, Filet-o-Fish, fries and a vanilla shake,” illustrating how closely the brand had become associated with Trump’s routine. Time magazine, summarizing that passage last year, framed it as an example of how Trump’s staff read diet as a barometer of well-being. The latest description by Gruters of an improvised sandwich combination is consistent with the broader theme of familiarity and control—ordering the same brands in predictable ways—while adding a note about customization and timing of service as he boarded a plane.