{"id":10774,"date":"2026-04-15T00:09:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T00:09:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/?p=10774"},"modified":"2026-04-15T00:09:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T00:09:17","slug":"the-white-house-doordash-fiasco-is-a-snapshot-of-a-presidency-in-free-fall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/?p=10774","title":{"rendered":"The White House DoorDash fiasco is a snapshot of a presidency in free fall"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Nobody is better than Donald Trump at changing the subject. Much like the weather in New England<\/a>, if you don\u2019t like what people are saying about Trump now, just wait five minutes.<\/p>\n

Sure enough, he moved on from calling Pope Leo XIV \u201cweak on crime\u201d and digitally turning into Jesus over the weekend by reaching back to that time he (rather successfully) cosplayed as a McDonald\u2019s worker. In\u00a0a fresh PR stunt designed to make him look somewhat normal while celebrating flagship policy,\u00a0 the president had McDonalds \u201cdelivered\u201d to the White House by a DoorDasher.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Unfortunately for Trump, changing the subject from his spat straight out of the Middle Ages<\/a>\u00a0might be the only thing this latest stunt accomplished. Instead of getting people talking about his “No Tax on Tips” policy, though, it got people talking about how the stunt was a flop. In other words, it went about as well as anything else Trump has done lately.<\/p>\n

Straining credulity<\/h2>\n

As a tee-up for Tax Week, the White House arranged for a DoorDasher to participate in the fantasy that the Secret Service routinely allows random people to hand-deliver lunch to the president. The driver, Sharon Simmons, was meant to express her gratitude to Trump on behalf of all service workers, as cameras snapped pics of the president being folksy.<\/p>\n

It did not exactly go as planned.<\/p>\n

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The first thing that went wrong was that the staginess itself took center stage. Upon opening the exterior door and seeing a scrum of cameras, Trump joked, \u201cThis doesn\u2019t look staged, does it?\u201d Further highlighting the aura of unreality, he seemed to have an entire dossier about the woman committed to memory.<\/p>\n

“So, the reason for this is the fact that I heard you picked up an extra $11,000 because the tax bill was so big,” he prompted, citing a statistically improbable<\/a> amount of savings that Simmons herself would later refute<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The stilted conversation that followed centered around the various personal and financial hardships she has recently endured, which the extra cash helped ameliorate. Trump couldn\u2019t resist turning the conversation political, however, awkwardly coaxing from Simmons the fact that she voted for him, and soliciting her opinion about trans women in sports. (\u201cI really don’t have an opinion on that,\u201d Simmons replied.)<\/p>\n

The stunt only went from mild failure to fiasco, though, as observers began dissecting it online.<\/p>\n

Backfiring spectacularly<\/h2>\n

Aside from the uncanny staged nature of the event, several eagle-eyed social media users<\/a> quickly seized on Simmons\u2019s familiar look<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

It turned out they had seen the Arkansas resident star in a reel shared by Rep. Jason Smith on Facebook<\/a> recently, and during a Ways and Means Committee field hearing in Las Vegas<\/a> last July. In both instances, Simmons had gushed about the ways Trump\u2019s One Big Beautiful Bill Act would greatly benefit people such as herself.<\/p>\n

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\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8 During the @WaysandMeansGOP<\/a> field hearing in Nevada, I had the privilege of hearing from Sharon Simmons about how the One Big Beautiful Bill will make a real difference in her life. As a mother and caregiver, she shared how this tax relief will help her and her family.
Her\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/3nkdGBT3u4<\/a><\/p>\n

— Rep. David Kustoff (@RepDavidKustoff) July 28, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

It\u2019s one thing for a Trump PR stunt to come off as stage-managed and forced; it\u2019s another for it to feature an apparent professional MAGA plant. Not only does her inclusion call into question just how many plants might be deployed in other capacities to help advance Trump\u2019s agenda, but it also makes Trump\u2019s previous accusations<\/a> of inorganic protest against him look like mere projection.<\/p>\n

Making matters worse, the head of public affairs at DoorDash quickly began spiraling<\/a> when he attempted to tamp down the backlash to the event. In a series of now-deleted tweets, Julian Crowley disputed on X that there was anything fishy about a woman from Arkansas appearing in a pro-Trump capacity at events in Washington, D.C., and Las Vegas a year apart. (\u201cYou need to touch grass,\u201d he wrote at the end of one tweet explaining how this everyday American obviously lived in Nevada last year, before moving to Arkansas more recently.) Crowley\u2019s crash-out soon became a story unto itself<\/a>, beyond underlining the failure of Trump\u2019s stunt.<\/p>\n

Adding fuel to the fire, so to speak, the stunt drew further glaring attention to fast-rising fuel costs since the war in Iran began. The high cost of gas has been a major issue for delivery drivers<\/a> over the past six weeks, complicating the White House\u2019s intended economic messaging.<\/p>\n

Sure, Trump may have tipped Simmons $100, but if he really wanted to do something for drivers, he might have increased the IRS mileage deduction rate, as DoorDashers are begging for<\/a> and as Sen. Ruben Gallego has been agitating for<\/a> throughout the war.<\/p>\n

Diminishing returns<\/h2>\n

As a former reality TV star, Trump often seems to think in reality TV terms. His publicity stunts tend to have a theatrical quality, but they are also episodic in nature\u2014”This week, on a very special Trump<\/em>, our hero hosts a Tesla infomercial on the White House lawn.\u201d<\/p>\n

The platonic ideal of a Trump stunt is probably his McDonald\u2019s visit in late 2024. It began as glib commentary about then-opponent Kamala Harris\u2019s claim of working at Mickey D\u2019s in her teens, but it bloomed into something way more effective. Like all his most successful publicity stunts, that one dominated media attention, shored up his base, infuriated his detractors, shifted social media conversation, and launched countless memes. He even got new merch out of it.<\/p>\n

Monday\u2019s doomed DoorDash stunt, though, only shows how far Trump has fallen<\/a> in the 18 months or so since the 2024 election.<\/p>\n

The disastrous PR stunt came amid multiple<\/a> personnel shake-ups<\/a> in his Cabinet, a public souring on his immigration approach<\/a> after the chaos in Minneapolis, bipartisan calls for the 25th amendment<\/a> due to his erratic nuclear threats against Iran, not to mention the perpetually lingering Epstein files, which are always a slow news day away from returning to the forefront of discourse.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s popularity is now in free fall, and the failed DoorDash extravaganza is just the latest example. It was meant to give him an easy win, like his visit to McDonald\u2019s; instead, the inept execution has eclipsed the stunt itself, and only extended the long streak of recent losses.<\/p>\n

Or to put it in reality TV terms: The Trump show appears to be on the bubble.<\/p>\n