The USA is Entering a Golden Age, Trump Tells McDonald’s Franchisees as Company Continues to Lose Budget Diners

The Golden Arches and the Golden Age

President Trump stood before McDonald’s franchise owners in Washington on November 17, 2025, and declared America was entering a golden age.

He joked that his 30-minute campaign shift frying potatoes in Pennsylvania made him the first former McDonald’s employee to reach the Oval Office.

He said prices were coming down and the CEO had personally confirmed it.

But outside that ballroom, the numbers told a different story, and the families who once counted on McDonald’s for a cheap dinner were already gone.

Trump Works the Fryer in Pennsylvania

The joke started in October 2024, two weeks before Election Day.

Trump visited a McDonald’s in Feasterville-Trevose, Pennsylvania, put on an apron, and learned to dunk fries in hot oil. He handed out bags through the drive-thru window to pre-screened customers while cameras rolled.

The stunt was meant to mock Kamala Harris, who had talked about her college job at McDonald’s. Trump claimed she never worked there and said his half-hour shift meant he had more experience than she did.

Big Mac Now Costs Triple 2000 Price

The Big Mac averaged $2.24 in the year 2000. By early 2025, that same sandwich cost $5. 79.By summer, it climbed to $6.01.

That is a 158 percent increase over 25 years. Some of that reflects normal inflation, but not all of it.

To match general inflation, that burger should cost around $4. 22 today.

The gap between those numbers is where customer frustration lives. And the burger is just one item on a menu that has risen across the board.

Prices Doubled Faster Than Any Chain

A FinanceBuzz study found that McDonald’s menu prices rose 100 percent between 2014 and 2024. That was the fastest increase of any major fast food chain in the study.

Big Mac combo prices jumped 27 percent in just five years, from 2019 to 2024. The company blamed rising costs for beef, labor, and supplies.

But customers did not care whose fault it was. They just knew their ten-dollar bill bought less than it used to.

Low-Income Families Stop Coming

McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski told investors in November 2025 that traffic from low-income households had dropped nearly double digits. The trend had lasted almost two years.

Wealthier customers were still showing up, even increasing their visits by similar margins.

But the families earning under $45,000 a year, the ones who once made McDonald’s their go-to for a quick meal, had pulled back. They were being squeezed by rent, groceries, childcare, and utilities.

Fast food was no longer fast or cheap enough.

Happy Meals Now Cost Nine Dollars

Analyst Adam Josephson put it bluntly to the Los Angeles Times. Happy Meals at McDonald’s are now too expensive for some families.

With tax, a Happy Meal runs around nine dollars in many locations. That is a kids’ meal.

For a family of four, a single McDonald’s trip can easily clear forty dollars. The Dollar Menu that saved the company in the early 2000s no longer exists in any meaningful form.

The chain tried a $5 meal deal and a McValue menu, but low-income customers kept leaving anyway.

The $18 Big Mac Photo Goes Viral

In 2023, a photo of an $18 Big Mac combo at a Connecticut rest stop spread across social media. It became a symbol of everything wrong with fast food prices.

McDonald’s President Joe Erlinger responded nearly a year later, calling it an exception from one location out of 13,700.

He said the average combo cost $9.29. But by then the damage was done.

The image stuck because it matched what people were feeling, even if their own receipts were slightly less shocking.

Middle-Class Approval Drops Sharply

Trump won middle-class voters in 2024 by a 52-to-46 margin after losing them in 2020. But by November 2025, that support had eroded.

YouGov polling showed his net approval among Americans earning $50,000 to $100,000 fell from minus 10 in September to minus 18 in November.

The slide followed a government shutdown, rising winter energy costs, and persistent frustration over grocery and housing prices. Only 24 percent of middle-class voters rated the economy as good or excellent.

Voters Say Trump Missed the Mark

An NBC News survey found that just 30 percent of voters believed Trump had met their expectations on inflation and cost of living. Among independents, 44 percent said cost of living was their top issue.

A Gallup poll in late November put Trump’s overall approval at 36 percent, his lowest of the second term. His approval on the economy specifically had dropped to 36 percent as well.

The affordability message he tried to deliver at McDonald’s was not landing with the people paying the bills.

McDonalds Tries to Bring Customers Back

The company launched its McValue menu in January 2025, including a $5 meal deal.

By fall, it announced plans to cut combo meal prices by at least 15 percent, bringing a $10 meal down to $8.50.

The chain also brought back Snack Wraps at $2.99.

McDonald’s was trying to reclaim its identity as affordable fast food, but the CEO warned the pressure on low-income customers would continue well into 2026.

The deals were not enough to reverse two years of shrinking traffic.

Trump Claims Victory on Eggs and Energy

At the McDonald’s Summit, Trump pointed to falling egg prices as proof his policies were working.

Wholesale egg prices had dropped from $6.55 per dozen in January to $3. 25 by late April, according to USDA data.

He also said breakfast item prices fell 14 percent in six months and that energy costs were coming down. He joked about convincing Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to eat a Big Mac.

But he spent less time on the prices that had not budged, like the cost of housing and healthcare.

Families Still Waiting at the Window

Trump told the franchise owners he hoped to return next year with even better news. He promised prices would keep falling and the country would reach the sweet spot soon.

But for now, the drive-thru lines are shorter than they used to be.

The families who once grabbed a quick dinner on the way home are cooking at home or skipping meals out entirely. McDonald’s is still open.

The golden arches still glow.

But the people who built the brand, the ones who needed a cheap burger after a long shift, are not coming through the door like they used to.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

Read more from this brand:

• Trump really, really wanted this in the Oval Office – but physics said no
• 17,000 Retirees Leave NYC as Cost of Living Pushes Seniors Out
• Trump wants new ballroom bigger than the White House; clashes with architect