Dem
47
GOP
53
There was a small incident on Monday that was nevertheless instructive in suggesting that the Trump administration knows very well its messaging is not working as well as it once did. It's not entirely clear whose idea this was, or how it was arranged, but the basic shtick was that Donald Trump ordered some food from his beloved McDonald's, and a DoorDash driver named Sharon Simmons, who has somehow acquired the nickname "DoorDash Grandma," hand-delivered it to Trump right outside the Oval Office.
The purpose of this political theater was primarily to highlight how great Trump's "no tax on tips" policy is. You can watch the video of the meet-up here, if you wish. In any event, it went off the rails from the beginning. Trump tried to make small-talk about how awful these trans people are, but Simmons had no interest, and shut that down. Again (see above), maybe the culture wars aren't so compelling when your gas bill is through the roof.
Thereafter, Trump decreed that his policy had saved Simmons $11,000 in taxes. This was reiterated on the White House's social media feeds. The problem is that it's not true. Yes, that's right, Trump told a lie. We'll wait while you lay down on your fainting couch for a spell. It turns out that Simmons' total take in 2025 was $11,000, and that her tax savings was more like $3,000. That's a chunk of change, but it's not $11,000, and she's been happy to go on TV and correct the record.
And then there's one last problem from a messaging standpoint. Someone thought to ask Simmons why she, a woman of 58 and on the cusp of retirement age, has taken a second job delivering food. It turns out the answer is that she's trying to help pay off her husband's five-figure medical bills. These would be the same medical bills that were supposed to be addressed by Trump's Obamacare replacement, which is apparently still sitting in a drawer somewhere.
Again, the real story here is that the White House knows it's got a problem when it comes to its grip on white non-college folks like Simmons. And if ill-conceived stunts like this one are all that Team Trump can come up with to try to correct the problem, it's going to be a long election season for the GOP, indeed. (Z)