The Fast Food President

The imminent Trump presidency has the left freaking out on many fronts. The President-Elect is perceived by many Americans as politically incorrect, racist, sexist, greedy, gauche, tacky, and basically uncool. And his food crimes are a source of much triggering as well. Trump, you see, is a fan of fast food, junk food, diner food, and other non-healthy edibles. He used photos of himself scarfing on McDonald’s, KFC, and taco bowls as part of his campaign. His complexion has even been compared to the orange hue of Cheetos.

Unsurprisingly, the mainstream press has tut-tutted over Trump’s dietary habits. From The New York Times’ take: “In an era of gourmet dining and obsession with healthy ingredients, Mr. Trump is a throwback to an earlier, more carefree time in American eating, when nobody bothered to ask whether the tomatoes were locally grown, and the first lady certainly didn’t have a vegetable garden, complete with a bee hive, on the South Lawn of the White House … Mr. Trump’s diet also telegraphs to his blue-collar base that he is one of them.”

But it’s not just that Trump is setting a bad personal example. Food activists think that the nation’s food policy is now at stake.

"The president-elect said little about food policy on the campaign trail, but there’s plenty of reason to believe he will roll back some of the most ineffective policies and stop bad ones from advancing on his watch. The culinary elites were hoping to use food issues to promote their overall agenda of higher taxes and more regulations under a Clinton administration; that agenda is now toast,” writes Julie Kelly in National Review.

The salad days of the Obama Administration are over. GMO labeling and Michelle Obama’s school lunch act are in peril. But liberal foodies can take some comfort in knowing that the White House Garden will be preserved as a permanent feature of the White House grounds. With Obamacare on the chopping block, the garden may be the only part of Obama’s legacy that Trump leaves standing.