McDonald's distances itself from Donald Trump. Here are 7 times Trump dragged big brands into politics

Donald Trump is nothing if not a showman. That was on full display this weekend when Trump, as Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz put it, was “cosplaying” as a McDonalds worker in Pennsylvania.

While the Golden Arches’ corporate office was not involved in the campaign season stunt, it still rushed to make clear that it is staying neutral in the 2024 presidential election. The fast food giant said it did not facilitate Trump’s visit and “does not endorse candidates.”

“As we’ve seen, our brand has been a fixture of conversation this election cycle,” the company said in a memo to employees. “While we’ve not sought this, it’s a testament to how much McDonald’s resonates with so many Americans. McDonald’s does not endorse candidates for elected office and that remains true in this race for the next President. We are not red or blue — we are golden.”

At Trump’s visit to a location outside Philadelphia that had been closed for his campaign, he served fries, pretended to work the drive-thru for pre-screened supporters, and briefly wished presidential rival Kamala Harris a happy birthday. The former president has repeatedly made baseless claims aimed at discrediting Harris’ assertion that she briefly worked at a McDonald’s in the 1980s.

Since then, McDonald’s has found itself at the center of the 2024 election discourse.

It’s not the first time that Trump, whether as president or as a candidate for office, has singled out a company — or its CEOs — for one reason or another.

Here are seven other times Trump dragged major corporations into the political spotlight.

Trump used to be — and, to an extent, still is — a harsh critic of Apple (AAPL). Much of that criticism stemmed from Apple manufacturing in countries such as China and the tech giant’s refusal to unlock its iPhones for law enforcement. For years, Apple has refused to help the Department of Justice access iPhones as part of criminal investigations, including after a 2015 mass shooting in California and a recent assassination attempt against the former president.

“Apple ought to give the security for that phone, OK,” Trump said in 2016, referring to the phone owned by one of the San Bernardino shooters. “What I think you ought to do is boycott Apple until such a time as they give that security number. How do you like that? I just thought of it. Boycott Apple.”

But Trump is also a big fan of Apple’s head honcho, Tim Cook. Last week, he said Apple needed a CEO like Tim Cook, rather than Steve Jobs, the company’s late founder.

“I believe that if Tim Cook didn’t run Apple if Steve Jobs did, it wouldn’t be nearly as successful as it is now,” Trump said on an episode of the PBD Podcast. “I think so because I think Tim Cook has done an amazing job, and I’m not knocking Steve Jobs, but it wouldn’t have been the same.”

Cook frequently called Trump when he was president, sat on the administration’s Workforce Policy Advisory Board, and hosted Trump at Apple’s campus in Austin. In 2019, after Cook managed to convince Trump to get Apple an exemption from a series of tariffs affecting Chinese imports, Cook gifted the then-president with one of the first Mac Pros built at its new U.S. facility. In an interview with Bloomberg News in June, Trump remarked that he found Cook to be “a very good businessman.”

Meta (META) CEO Mark Zuckerberg has had a rocky relationship with the former president, to say the least.

Trump has called Facebook an “enemy of the people” (even as he bought ads on it), claimed that Zuckerberg plotted against him during the 2020 presidential election, and pledged that he would “spend the rest of his life in prison” if he —allegedly — did it again. He’s also a fan of ByteDance-owned TikTok because it competes with Facebook and Instagram.

In August, Zuckerberg expressed regret over Meta’s decision to censor content related to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021, something Trump and other conservatives have criticized him for. After years of being a punching bag for Democrats and Republicans alike, Zuckerberg has publicly moved to focus on nonpartisanship and away from the liberal causes he once backed. In private, he considers himself a libertarian.

“I’ve done some stuff personally in the past,” Zuckerberg told Bloomberg News in July. “I’m not planning on doing that this time, and that includes not endorsing either of the candidates.”

And Trump approves. In a recent interview, Trump said he likes Zuckerberg “much better now.” He’s also told a story claiming that Zuckerberg called him and said “I’ve never supported a Republican before, but there’s no way I can vote for a Democrat in this election.” Meta has said Zuckerberg hasn’t told anyone, including Trump, how he plans to vote.

As for Zuckerberg, he’s publicly expressed some admiration for Trump, at least in the aftermath of an assassination attempt in July.

“Seeing Donald Trump get up after getting shot in the face and pump his fist in the air with the American flag is one of the most badass things I’ve ever seen in my life,” he told Bloomberg. “On some level as an American, it’s like hard to not get kind of emotional about that spirit and that fight, and I think that that’s why a lot of people like the guy.”

Trump in June tackled Taiwan’s dominance in the chipmaking industry, claiming that Taiwan has taken “about 100%” of America’s semiconductor business. Taiwan is home to 92% of the world’s semiconductor manufacturing capacity, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association, largely thanks to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC)

Hsinchu, Taiwan-based TSMC is the world’s largest chipmaker, manufacturing an estimated 90% of the world’s most advanced chips that power everything from iPhones to artificial intelligence models.

“Taiwan took our chip business,” Trump told Bloomberg News. “I mean, how stupid are we? They took all of our chip business. They’re immensely wealthy.”

TSMC stock took a hit after Trump’s remarks. The company is a major supplier of companies like Nvidia and Apple, and has been granted billions of dollars to build in the U.S. through the Biden administration’s CHIPS and Science Act.

In August 2020, Trump called for consumers to boycott Goodyear (GT) over a policy that, in part, prohibited employees from wearing “MAGA Attire,” according to Politico.

“Don’t buy GOODYEAR TIRES - They announced a BAN ON MAGA HATS. Get better tires for far less!” Trump wrote on Twitter, now called X, at the time.

The Trump campaign merchandise was banned alongside a number of other items deemed inappropriate for work, alongside “Blue Lives Matter,” “All Lives Matter,” “MAGA Attire” and “Political Affiliated Slogans or Material,” a Kansas television station reported at the time, citing a slideshow presented at Goodyear’s plant in Topeka. “Black Lives Matter” and “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Pride” were allowed.

Goodyear said the slide discussing that was not created or distributed by its corporate office, nor was it part of a diversity training initiative. The company added that it has “zero tolerance for any forms of harassment or discrimination.”

Despite Goodyear’s statement, Trump doubled-down on his criticism, accusing the Ohio-based company of “playing politics” and saying that “there’s something wrong with the top of Goodyear.” His press secretary at the time, Kayleigh McEnany, accused Goodyear of targeting conservatives, according to Politico.

Trump is a big fan of oil and natural gas — one of his constant phrases on the campaign trail has been “drill, baby, drill” — and has been a major recipient of industry campaign contributions. But for all his promises to the industry, he’s also had a habit of getting those companies in trouble.

In October 2020, just weeks before the presidential election, Trump claimed that he had called up the “head of Exxon (XOM),” presumably CEO Darren Woods.

“So I call some guy, the head of Exxon. I call the head of Exxon, I don’t know, you know. I’ll use a company,” Trump said. “‘Hi, how you doing? How’s energy coming? When are you doing the exploration? Oh, you need a couple of permits, huh? OK. ... I’d love you to send me $25 million for the campaign.’”

Such an exchange would violate federal law, which prohibits giving campaign contributions in return for a favor or advantages.

“We are aware of the President’s statement regarding a hypothetical call with our CEO… and just so we’re all clear, it never happened,” ExxonMobil said soon after Trump’s comments, worried that it could get into trouble with authorities.

In May, congressional Democrats announced an investigation into a reported meeting between Trump and key figures at several leading oil and gas firms. The lawmakers requested information about the meeting from eight top oil and gas companies, including Chevron (CVX), ExxonMobil, and Occidental Petroleum (OXY).

During that meeting, he offered a deal, The Washington Post reported: If the executives raised $1 billion for his campaign, Trump would “immediately reverse dozens” of President Joe Biden’s environmental rules and policies once in office.

Harley Davidson, a now 121-year-old company, found itself playing defense to Trump’s ire in 2018 after it said it would manufacture some bikes outside the U.S.

The move came after the then-president hit the European Union with tariffs on steel and aluminum. The bloc retaliated with levies aimed directly at auto manufacturers, which pushed Harley to make its motorcycles destined for the E.U. market in Thailand.

“Many @harleydavidson owners plan to boycott the company if manufacturing moves overseas. Great! Most other companies are coming in our direction, including Harley competitors,” Trump said that August, The New York Times reported. That was a major attitude change from just a year earlier, when Trump hailed Harley as a “true American icon.”

Those dueling tariffs — mixed with a number of other factors, such Trump’s condemnation and an aging consumer base — slammed the company’s bottom line. In early 2020, Harley had some of its worst sales results more than a decade, which led its then-CEO to step down.

— Francisco Velasquez contributed to this article