MAGA Faithful Say McDonald’s E. Coli Outbreak Is a Conspiracy to Hurt Trump

The CDC warned consumers about a dangerous E. coli outbreak tied to McDonald’s Quarter Pounders on Tuesday, which has killed one person, hospitalized 10, and sickened dozens more. It’s a frightening development in a country where 87% of Americans visit McDonald’s at least once a year. But like everything in 2024, some people are convinced the outbreak is fake news. In fact, some supporters of Donald Trump think the CDC’s latest warning about foodborne illness and death is just to hurt Trump in the presidential election.

“So let me get this straight. Right after Trump works at McDonalds suddenly the CDC reports an E. Coli outbreak from their quarter pounders. Sick people,” one user wrote Tuesday on X.

Trump held a photo-op at a McDonald’s location in Pennsylvania on Oct. 20, pretending to serve up food to customers, despite the fact that it was all staged with pre-screened supporters. The former president pulled the stunt because he falsely claims his Democratic opponent Kamala Harris lied about working at McDonald’s in college to make herself more relatable. And the image of a billionaire cosplaying as a McDonald’s worker is apparently supposed to make him more relatable.

The Trump supporters called the illnesses from McDonald’s “convenient timing,” and the conspiracy theory that it was all a plan to hurt Trump apparently caused some in MAGA world to eat even more McDonald’s because they didn’t believe the CDC.

“Yep. I got a double quarter pounder at McDonald’s yesterday, already had plans for dinner tonight but, going to get another one tomorrow. Cuz the CDC is full of shit,” one user responded.

Skepticism of the CDC isn’t completely new, of course. While 74% of Americans in a Feb. 2022 survey said they trust the public health agency, that leaves a quarter of the country who don’t trust the CDC, according to CBS News. And it seems like a safe bet that the number of people who distrust the CDC has only grown since early 2022, given the political machinations of the right-wing media ecosystem, though we don’t have more recent polling data.

The conspiracy theorists on social media didn’t just point fingers at the CDC. All the three-letter agencies seem to be involved somehow.

“Right after people flooded McDonald’s to show support for Trump working a shift. Man, the #CIA is so predictable,” one X user wrote.

Again, saying that Trump was “working a shift” is pretty funny when you know the real backstory. All told, Trump spent about half an hour inside the McDonald’s, based on video livestreamed by news cameras reporting from the stunt. And he didn’t actually work. He just handed out bags of random food that the people in line didn’t order. But these folks saw conspiracy theories in every corner.

“Does one see a connection here or possibly a false flag? Trump serves McDonald’s and two days later…” one conspiracy theorist on X wrote, including information about the CDC warning.

“Oh gee what a coincidence McDonald’s is being attacked with bad press now. Couldn’t possibly have ANYTHING to do with Trump’s visit last week could it lmao,” another X user tweeted sarcastically.

“I think this was orchestrated by deep state Harris supporters after Trump’s visit to McDonald’s. There are no consequences!” another wrote, making the whole conspiracy theory connection more explicitly about Harris.

Gizmodo even saw the claims of a conspiracy that involved our humble little weblog.

“Nice timing on the hit piece! POS rag mag,” one X user replied to Gizmodo’s tweet about the McDonald’s E. coli outbreak. Gizmodo’s post about the CDC’s warning didn’t include a single reference to Trump, of course. But that hasn’t stopped Trump supporters from seeing conspiracies against their aspiring fascist leader everywhere—like the recent hurricanes somehow directed by Democrats to heavily GOP areas.

But it’s those same nimrods who are trying to create fake stories about Harris and Walz, as we saw recently when disinformation agents tried to claim cocaine discovered at the White House was for Harris and that Walz had abused a former student as a teacher.

“Illuminati globalist false flag to cancel McDonald’s Americana for endorsing Trump,” another conspiracy theorist wrote on X.

There was the flip side of these conspiracy theories, of course. Plenty of people were making jokes about Trump’s recent publicity stunt at McDonald’s and how it might be connected to Trump’s visit.

They let Trump in McDonald’s once, no hair net no gloves, rawdogging the fries, 2 days later there’s already e.coli in 10 states and their stock is crashing https://t.co/02djxG2QzM pic.twitter.com/sDPS9AxXSB

— Chris OIIey (@chrisoIIey) October 22, 2024

After Trump’s visit to the McDonald’s in Pennsylvania, some people flooded Yelp with negative reviews. Yelp shut down reviews for that particular restaurant location, telling Gizmodo that all reviews must be “genuine” and based on “firsthand experience with the business,” for them to be allowed on the platform.

“Due to the increased public attention we saw after former President Trump visited a McDonald’s in Feasterville, PA on Sunday, October 20, we worked quickly to temporarily disable the posting of content to the page and placed an Unusual Activity Alert on Monday, October 21,” Yelp told Gizmodo late Tuesday over email. “When we see the activity dramatically decrease or stop, our moderators will clean up the page so reviews describing only firsthand consumer experiences are reflected.”

No, the CDC or the CIA or whoever else didn’t run a false flag E. coli operation against Trump. One person is dead in Colorado and McDonald’s is still working to determine if the E. coli came from the beef or the onions used on the Quarter Pounder. Not everything is about the election, even as most decent Americans are staring at the daily polls worried that Trump has a very real shot at being the most powerful person in the world again.

This is the guy who reportedly told his staff repeatedly that he wanted generals like the ones who served Adolf Hitler. That guy. He’s running dead even against a moderate Democrat. And he could become the president again.