The Meal Trump Organized For These Football Champions Has People Baffled

On Monday evening, Trump curated the Clemson Tigers' White House meal — and he went with all fast-food. It's a tradition for collegiate national championship winners to visit the White House, but the fast-food move by POTUS was definitely unprecedented. Football players had a selection of McDonald's, Wendy's, or Burger King, according to CNN, and Trump's reasoning behind this move was equally puzzling.

To reporters on Monday afternoon, Trump announced his plan for the evening. Via CNN, he said he would be serving "McDonald's, Wendy's and Burger King's with some pizza." He added, "I think that would be their favorite food, so we'll see what happens."

There's no clear answer for why he thinks fast-food would be the universal preferred meal for a group of collegiate athletes, but deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley did add some color to the situation. To CNN, Gidley said on Monday, "The President wanted to host a fun event to celebrate the College Football National Champion Clemson Tigers."

Perhaps even more surprisingly, the meal was being supplied on POTUS' dime. Fox reports that Trump personally paid for the meal on Monday night with Clemson football, as a result of the ongoing government shutdown.

On Monday evening, right before Clemson arrived at the White House, Trump told reporters outside via CNN, "Because of the shutdown, you know we have the great Clemson team with us, the national champions. So we went out and we ordered American fast food, paid for by me. Lots of hamburgers, lots of pizza."

POTUS continued, "We have some very large people that like eating. So I think we're going to have a little fun."

According to Fox News, the spread was something to behold: silver bowls were used to hold the condiments, stacks of white plates were positioned sporadically, and multiple Clemson players were seen eating a number of burgers throughout the dining space.

As you might guess, many Twitter users had a field day with the news that Trump was serving fast food to Clemson following its historic championship win. Timothy Burke, the director of video at Daily Beast, tweeted out a link containing the bio of the current chef for Clemson athletes.

Burke wrote, "Clemson football has an 'executive performance chef' dietary coach, whose specific job is to ensure the players do not eat the very food Donald Trump is serving them in the White House tonight."

Dan Pfeiffer, a former Obama aide and co-host of the political podcast Pod Save America, tweeted, "Trump patting himself on the back for paying for the cheapest food available for the Clemson Football team after he shutdown the Government down is about as Trump as you can get."

Reggie Bush's commentary skipped the humor and went straight to the disappointment. He tweeted, "Just when you think you’ve seen it all, @ClemsonFB you guys deserve better you are world champs and this is the honor you receive from our nations leader!? This is disrespectful on so many levels, just a huge slap in the face after that kind of performance! SMH!"