President Donald Trump and his staff celebrated the opening week of the new MAHA eating guidelines by dining on a cheeseburger topped with a fried egg and bacon.
The calorie bomb was served as a “brunch burger” on Tuesday as the president flew from Washington to Detroit, Michigan, to deliver a speech on the economy and to visit the Ford F-150 assembly plant.
It is unclear whether Trump, 79, ate the burger himself, but The New York Times has reported that meals on Air Force One are historically tailored for the president, who often dines on the same meal as everyone else on board.
Tuesday’s menu was shared on Instagram by the White House communications aide Margo Martin. She did not share a photo of the burger itself.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has said he is trying to get the president—and the rest of the country—to follow a diet more like his, but Trump’s penchant for fast food and burgers appears unchanged.
Kennedy announced last week that a new inverted food pyramid would “revolutionize” health in America. A greasy cheeseburger is nowhere on the pyramid, of course, but it does technically incorporate some of his priority foods, like red meat and dairy. However, burgers and bacon are both processed foods of the sort he suggested Americans avoid. Also to be avoided in large quantities are grains, ruling out the burger bun, which as a bonus was brioche, which is high in refined sugar.
A typical smash burger with cheese and bacon runs around 830 calories, according to Ketogenic.
Kennedy, 71, told Katie Miller’s podcast this week that he does not know how Trump is still alive at 79 with his diet that is filled with “poison,” as he put it. He would likely be more pleased by the sides served Tuesday on Air Force One.
Accompanying the burger was an “arugula side salad,” topped with cherry tomatoes, feta cheese, and a champagne vinaigrette, as well as a fruit bowl filled with blackberries, cantaloupe, and watermelon pearls.
Kennedy told Miller that Trump eats healthier at the White House and Mar-a-Lago but goes for junk food when he is on the road. Photos from the road back up this statement, as Tuesday is far from the first time burgers have been served on board Air Force One.
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White House Deputy Chief of Staff Dan Scavino shared a photo on April 26 of an even unhealthier meal, featuring a burger branded “AF1” on its bun, onion rings, and a caramel-pecan brownie. That was the day Trump traveled to and from the Vatican for Pope Francis’s funeral.
Other meals served this year have been much healthier.
The plane’s menu on May 12 featured “bruschetta chicken,” a garden salad, and cannoli. On June 15, passengers were served a flank steak topped with green olives, red onions, celery, jalapeños, and crumbled blue cheese. That meal came with a garden salad and a chocolate mousse cake.
The White House did not comment on whether Trump typically eats the same food on Air Force One as the rest of the passengers, including the press.
The late CBS News correspondent Mark Knoller, who chronicled the details of presidential administrations from Gerald Ford’s through Trump’s first term, told the Times in 2014 that the president often ate the same food as passengers.
That same Times report noted the hypocrisy of Air Force One frequently serving blue-cheese burgers, buffalo wings, and chocolate fudge cake as First Lady Michelle Obama publicly pushed for healthy eating and changes to school lunches across the country.
However, Obama, now 64, was just 51 at the start of his second term.
Trump, by contrast, is six months away from becoming an octogenarian, and his physical health has shown signs of slipping. His right hand is often bruised, he cannot walk in a straight line at times, and he now struggles to keep his eyes open during public engagements.
The president does not appear so concerned about staying in tip-top shape, however. He recently said of non-golf exercise: “I just don’t like it. It’s boring.”
He added, “To walk on a treadmill or run on a treadmill for hours and hours like some people do, that’s not for me.”
Still, Trump has been on a health-and-fitness tear for the rest of America since taking office.
In July, Trump announced the revival of the Presidential Fitness Test, which creates school-based fitness challenges and awards for “excellence in fitness.” Last month, he also announced a new national high school competition pitting top athletes from across the country against one another.
