Donald Trump, the former U.S. president and Republican presidential candidate, has sparked a flood of review bombing on the McDonald's store where he worked as a part-time employee for a day. The online review site Yelp has temporarily blocked customer reviews for the store.
According to The New York Times (NYT) on the 22nd (local time), after Trump worked as a part-time employee at a McDonald's located in Bucks County, Pennsylvania on the 20th, Yelp reviews for the store were flooded with mockery, criticism, exaggerations, suspicions, and praise from Trump supporters directed at both Trump and McDonald's. Yelp is a site where customers leave review ratings based on their direct experiences.
Earlier, Trump was seen wearing an apron, making French fries, and taking orders directly at the drive-thru. This was interpreted as a move to highlight himself as a genuine populist candidate in contrast to his rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, who had past part-time experience at McDonald's, ahead of the November presidential election.
However, many reviews expressed discomfort over Trump, who comes from a "gold spoon" background and owns trillions of won in assets, working as a part-time employee at McDonald's. One customer wrote, "Don't let a convicted criminal trying to overturn the election manipulate the campaign." Another sarcastically commented, "There is a giant orange rat in the kitchen. The operator let the rat roam around and even posted a photo."
On the other hand, supportive reviews for Trump were also found. One customer quoted Trump's campaign slogan "Make America Great Again," writing, "Make McDonald's great again," and called it "the best McDonald's in 47 years." The NYT described the situation as "a storm of mocking reviews not based on customers' direct experiences."
Eventually, Yelp temporarily disabled the new comment feature around 3 p.m. that day. Visitors to the page now see a "Warning of abnormal activity" notification. Before the comment feature was disabled, more than 145 reviews had been posted for the McDonald's store.
Earlier, McDonald's emphasized political neutrality following Trump's visit. McDonald's stated, "Our brand has become the center of attention in this election cycle, but this is not something we intended," adding, "McDonald's does not support any elected candidates, and this remains true for this election. We are neither red (Republican) nor blue (Democrat), but golden."
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