Donald Trump appeared awed by the sheer number of Chinese restaurants in the United States during a state banquet toast with Xi Jinping in Beijing on Thursday.
The 79-year-old McDonald’s superfan—whose famed order, per his former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski’s 2017 book Let Trump Be Trump, consists of two Big Macs, two Filet-O-Fish, and a chocolate “malted”—took the stage at the Great Hall of the People to laud the close ties between the two superpowers.
Speaking after a day of high-stakes meetings with Xi, 72, the president told the room: “Just as many Chinese now love basketball and blue jeans, Chinese restaurants in America today outnumber the five largest fast food chains in the United States all combined.”
“That’s a pretty big statement,” Trump added.
The president also described the day’s talks as “extremely positive and productive” and thanked Xi for a “magnificent welcome,” while reaching back through history to cite Franklin Roosevelt’s wartime references to “the brave people of China” and 250 years of U.S.-China trade. He closed by inviting Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan, to the White House on September 24.
It was a warmer scene than the one playing out at 30,000 feet earlier in the week, when, as the Daily Beast reported, Trump’s special assistant Margo Martin shared an Air Force One menu featuring a forlorn-looking beef stir fry garnished with a pair of spring rolls, plated up on gilded china and rounded off with a misjudged fortune cookie.
Trump’s last state banquet in Beijing in 2017 saw Chinese chefs cater to his palate with stewed beef steak in tomato sauce—a diplomatic wink to his fondness for well-done steak doused in ketchup—along with kung pao chicken, Newsweek reported at the time.
This time around, guests were served lobster in tomato soup, crispy beef ribs, and Beijing roast duck, followed by tiramisu and fruit.
Trump’s McDonald’s habit has been picked over by members of his own Cabinet. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., 72, told podcaster Joe Rogan in February that Trump only trusts fast food on the road because he fears local restaurants will poison him.
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
