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President Donald Trump claims he once got Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to eat a McDonald’s Big Mac.
During the president’s speech before McDonald’s franchise owners on Monday, Nov. 17, in Washington, D.C., he said he was one of the fast food chain’s “all-time most loyal customers.”
“Other politicians fly around on campaign planes stocked with expensive catering,” Trump, 79, said at McDonald’s Impact Summit 2025. “When Trump Force One — prior to ascending to Air Force One — flew during the campaign, we served only McDonald’s almost every time. On occasion, we couldn’t find one, which is pretty hard to believe, but we really did.”
“You fed us very well, and I even got Bobby Kennedy to eat a Big Mac,” Trump said. “He told me he loved it.”
Kennedy, 71, did not approve of Trump’s diet. Days after the 2024 presidential election, Kennedy compared the food Trump served on Trump Force One to poison in an interview with podcaster Joe Polish.
“The stuff that he eats is really, like, bad,” Kennedy told Polish. “Campaign food is always bad, but the food that goes onto that airplane is, like, just poison. You have a choice between — you don’t have the choice, you’re either given KFC or Big Macs. That’s, like, when you’re lucky, and then the rest of the stuff I consider kind of inedible.”
Days after that interview, though, Kennedy posed with Trump, House Speaker Mike Johnson, Elon Musk and Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr. on Trump Force One with McDonald’s fast food laid out on a table. Kennedy himself held up a box for a Big Mac, with a bottle of Coca-Cola beside his meal.
Win McNamee/Getty
According to Trump Jr., Kennedy did eat McDonald’s food when that photo was taken.
“Bobby did have some McDonald’s,” Trump Jr., 47, told the late Charlie Kirk in a November podcast episode, according to the New York Times. “We definitely had some fun with that one.”
Aaron Schwartz/Bloomberg via Getty
During his Senate confirmation testimony in late January, Kennedy said he did not seek to “take food away from anybody,” specifically mentioning how much Trump loves McDonald’s.
“If you like … a McDonald’s cheeseburger, Diet Coke, which my boss loves, you should be able to get them,” Kennedy said. “If you want to eat Hostess Twinkies, you should be able to do that, but you should know what the impacts are on your family and on your health.”
