U.S. President Donald Trump is not known to be a man of long-lasting loyalties but has two obsessions that have lasted — nuclear weapons and cheeseburgers. Both topics came alive yet again last week, helped in great measure by Michael Wolff’s new book on the President, which possibly owes its title, Fire and Fury , to a statement he made last year. In a threat to North Korea, Mr. Trump had said it could face “fire and fury like the world has never seen”.
Button, as in the ‘nuclear button’, and burger combined in many ways in the Trumpian world last week, starting with a new exchange between North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un and Mr. Trump. In a response to Mr. Kim’s statement that he could launch a nuclear strike against the U.S. any time, Mr. Trump tweeted: “Will someone from his depleted and food starved regime please inform him that I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!”
American fast-food giant KFC found an opportunity. KFC U.K. and Ireland tweeted: “McDonald’s leader Ronald just stated he has a “burger on his desk at all times”. Will someone from his big shoed, red nosed regime inform him that I too have a burger on my desk, but mine is a box meal which is bigger and more powerful than his, and mine has gravy!” The KFC tweet was retweeted 1.84 lakh times by Saturday, compared to 1.92 lakh retweets for Mr. Trump.
Mr. Wolff’s account says Mr. Trump would like to be “in bed... with a cheeseburger, watching his three screens and making phone calls”, by 6.30 p.m. A fear of getting poisoned drew him to fast food, he says. “(O)ne reason why he liked to eat at McDonald’s — nobody knew he was coming and the food was safely premade.” In a 2016 interview, Mr. Trump had said: “I think you’re better off going there than someplace you have no idea where the food is coming from. It’s a certain standard.”
His former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski offers more details in his book Let Trump Be Trump . Mr. Lewandowski says Mr. Trump’s typical order from McDonald’s consists of two Big Macs, two Filet-O-Fish sandwiches, and a chocolate shake. All these add up to 2,500 calories, more than needed for a 71-year-old for an entire day. And, Mr. Lewandowski says, Mr. Trump drinks 12 Diet Cokes to wash it all down, every day.
When he moved to the White House, the in-house chefs were asked to imitate the Big Macs. They failed often, and the President’s long-time bodyguard Keith Schiller would sprint to the McDonald’s nearby, according to a Politico report.
Deal with the button
While Mr. Trump’s burger craze remains a topic of curiosity for Americans, what scares them is his deal with the button. Mr. Trump has been talking loosely about nukes for decades now, and has always dreamed of a role for himself in its future. In 1984, he wanted to be America’s lead negotiator with the Soviet Union on nuclear disarmament. “It would take an hour-and-a-half to learn everything there is to learn about missiles... I think I know most of it anyway,” he had said then. He also used to say a nuclear war was inevitable.
In 2004, he said in an interview to Playboy on nukes: “The world is rocky, and some terrible things are going to happen. That’s why I lead the life I do. I enjoy it. I know life is fragile, and if the world looks like this a hundred years from now, we’ll either be very lucky or have found unbelievably good leaders somewhere down the line.”
Varghese K. George works for the Hindu and is based in Washington DC
