Unless you’ve been living under a rock the past week, then you’ve at least witnessed a meme of what has to be one of the funniest acts during any U.S. president’s term: President Trump serving fast food to the Clemson football team.
Some of our past presidents have done some memorable acts — Bill Clinton playing saxophone on TV, Barack Obama ending his last speech at the correspondents dinner with a mic drop — but something about Trump providing fast food to a bunch of college guys really tickles my fancy.
When I think about a dinner at the White House, I imagine nice, prime cut steaks and some kind of expensive hors d'oeuvres, not McDonald’s, Wendy’s and Burger King. But am I completely appalled at the situation? Not really, unlike the rest of the country who has been criticizing Trump on his choice in food.
As a country, we should learn to loosen up a little when celebrities, including politicians, do weird things. Just imagine everyone's faces and reactions when they walked into the White House and see a mountain of Big Macs. That's a priceless image that isn't worth being analyzed under a microscope and forever tainted by the opposing side's critiques.
And let’s face it, these are still college kids. As a fellow college student, I will gladly take any free food. For example, I went to a callout meeting for a club just so I could eat free pizza. I couldn’t even tell you what the club's focus was.
It wasn’t like this act was spur of the moment. That morning, Trump told the press about his decision to serve fast food.
“I think we’re going to serve McDonald's, Wendy's, and Burger King,” Trump said. “I really mean it. I would think that's their favorite food.”
One of the Clemson players that was there, Cole Renfrow, tweeted about the dinner, praising Trump on his meal choices. Clemson’s defensive player development coach even posted on Facebook saying how he enjoyed the meal.
However, the event wouldn’t have become this public if it weren’t for all of the backlash and theories as to why Trump really decided to serve fast food.
Late night hosts like Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel and Seth Meyers bashed Trump's choice of food, saying how he wasn’t catering to the players but only to himself. They were also saying how Trump chose the cheapest foods to serve since he was paying out of pocket due to the government shutdown.
The director of video for the Daily Beast even pointed out that Clemson has dietitians geared toward making sure the Clemson players don’t indulge on “the very food Donald Trump is serving them.”
But as much as people love controversy and disliking a common enemy, I think we need to cherish the all-around good thing to come out of this: the memes. Some of my personal favorites include “President Big Boy” and the candid of Clemson’s Matt Bockhorst looking at Big Macs like he would a prize possession.
In all honesty, though, why is everyone so upset about this dinner? Sure, it’s unorthodox, but it’s not like there’s some underlying message where Trump is trying to signal his rogues about some evil plan to thwart the Democrats. If he were, I would imagine him like Dick Dastardly and Mike Pence as Muttley from "Wacky Races," where their plans always go belly-up.
I don’t think there’s any need to be so confrontational about the dinner. If the Clemson players and staff are saying they enjoyed it, then why can’t we just let it be? Why does it have to become this extravagant event that needs criticizing?
I just hope one day, regardless of how much backlash occurs, this moment becomes one of those little side boxes in a history textbook with the “Check this out!” headline so our future generations will never forget the meme that was the McFeast.
