Trump Touts Economic Record In McDonald’s Speech: ‘You’re So Damn Lucky I Won The Election’

President Donald Trump told McDonald’s franchise owners on Monday night that his 2024 election victory was vital to the U.S. economy, touting his push to lower prices.

Trump opened his remarks at the 2025 McDonald’s “Impact Summit” in Washington, D.C., by referring to a 2024 campaign stop that helped fuel his election victory, when he handed out orders to customers at a McDonald’s in Pennsylvania.

“I’m honored to stand before you as the very first former McDonald’s fry cook ever to become president of the United States,” Trump said. “And I actually was there for about 30 minutes, and that was 30 minutes longer than Kamala [Harris] was there, despite her job at McDonald’s. That didn’t work out too well.”

The summit also featured speeches from Democratic politicians, such as New York Governor Kathy Hochul, Maryland Governor Wes Moore, Rep. Pete Aguilar of California, and former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel. The event provided Trump with an opportunity to push forward the administration’s refocused efforts to address economic issues.

During his speech, Trump argued that under former President Joe Biden, “Welfare was going up … government jobs were going up, real jobs were going down.”

“You would’ve had a catastrophe,” he added. “You probably would’ve had a bankrupt country. You are so damn lucky that I won that election, I’m telling you.”

Trump acknowledged that “there’s still a lot of work to do” in his effort to boost the economy and help businesses, but argued that America is already in a “golden age.”

“Because we are doing better than we’ve ever done as a country,” the president added. “Prices are coming down and all of that stuff. … Nobody has done what we’ve done in terms of pricing. We took over a mess.”

.@POTUS: “There’s still a lot of work to do—and we’re making tremendous progress. 1.9 million more American-born workers are employed today than when I took office… Wages for hourly workers are rising at the fastest pace in 60 years.” pic.twitter.com/2Hvu33hnO6

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) November 17, 2025

The president said that inflation remains one of the issues that his administration would continue to address. Trump said he would like to see inflation drop “a little bit lower,” as the White House seeks to address Americans’ lingering economic concerns.

“We have it down to a low level, but we’re going to get it a little bit lower. We want perfection,” Trump said.

Year-over-year inflation sits at 3% as of the latest update. It has hovered at fairly low levels — between 2.5% and 3.5% — throughout Trump’s second term, but Americans continue to see the prices of some food items increase. Ground beef, for example, shot up 13.5% from last year. The prices of imported foods, such as bananas, avocados, and coffee, have also increased due to Trump’s so-called reciprocal tariffs, which he imposed on nearly every country worldwide.

The Trump administration acknowledged last week that some tariffs on food are negatively affecting Americans and moved to roll back tariffs on numerous food items, including beef, coffee, tea, bananas, oranges, tomatoes, and tropical fruits and fruit juices. During his speech on Monday night, however, Trump argued that his tariffs are an overall benefit to the United States.

“We have over $17 trillion being invested in our country in nine months. It’s now just about ready to crack $18 [trillion], and by the end of one year, we will have about $20 to $21 trillion invested in our country,” Trump said. “That’s more [than] 10 times the highest amount ever invested in any country ever before, and it’s largely because of tariffs.”

Trump thanked McDonald’s for working to lower its prices, but many Americans have complained that the fast-food giant’s prices have continued to rise. According to The Economist’s “Big Mac Index,” McDonald’s prices have increased in recent months, with the average cost of the chain’s signature Big Mac jumping to $6.01 as of July, which was up from $5.69 at the same time last year. Trump suggested that he would speak at the summit next year if the company gets prices “down enough.”

“And I want to give a very special thanks to McDonald’s for slashing prices for your most popular items, bringing back extra value meals. And I hear you’re recommitting to the affordable options of Americans that we really know and love, all of the items that we love,” Trump said, adding, “We’re getting prices down for this country and there’s no better leader or advocate than McDonald’s and I believe the next time I’ll have to be back here again next year if you get them down enough.”