With Donald Trump's presidency at an end,
the world will no doubt spend a lot of time unpacking his tenure and his habits during it.
From a pure dining standpoint, Trump's culinary habits have been... fascinating,
to say the least. His keen interest in fast food and well-done steaks with ketchup have
caused some to feel he commits crimes against food – although to be fair,
the Trump family as a whole eats at least somewhat more healthy than its patriarch.
Still, considering Trump's affinity for food that's,
uh, not exactly home cooking, and the fact that he did spend a whole bunch of time in Washington,
D.C. over the last four years, you'd expect that he'd been a regular presence in the area's
restaurant scene -- or at least its drive-thru lanes. That assumption couldn't be more wrong.
In fact, it turns out Donald Trump only visited one D.C. restaurant during his entire presidency.
According to The Washingtonian, Trump somehow managed to spend
his entire presidency without visiting a single restaurant in the D.C. area...
except one. The ex-president was known to occasionally head to BLT Prime by David Burke,
a steakhouse at the local Trump hotel. The steak, of course, was always well
done and came with fries. He reportedly also started his order with a shrimp cocktail.
It could be that Trump simply didn't much care for the D.C. restaurant scene. A 2017 interview with
the Larry O'Connor Show painted his culinary interests in a dramatically different light.
"When I leave the White House, which is seldom, I always go to my hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue,
and they say, 'He should go to other places.' And I never thought of it."
Trump claimed in the interview that he intended to start making his way around the restaurant circuit
in the nation's capital, but this turned out to be a bit of an exaggeration. Still,
Trump's documented dietary habits and his fondness of using fast-food fare for official White House
occasions strongly hint that his staff had to spend a lot of time picking up takeout.
Donald Trump may not have been a huge restaurant aficionado during his presidency,
but he didn't necessarily need to be. The man was the president, after all, so he had access to all
sorts of cuisine — as well as staff to whip him a meal at all hours, should he so desire.
There are many rules the White House staff has to follow, and the resident chefs can have it
particularly hard. Before the new president even steps inside the building for the first time,
the staff has already compiled a vast dossier on their and the first family's preferences
and requirements, dietary and otherwise. The kitchen staff is also prepared to cook all
the president's favorites, and to adjust and change the menu on a moment's notice.
As such, it's probably fair to assume that the White House chefs were perfectly able to
whip up a copycat McRib or two if Trump felt peckish during a late-night Twitter session.
Of course, when push comes to shove, takeout is also an option. In 2019,
Trump invited the Clemson Tigers football team to visit the White House. Because a partial
government shutdown had temporarily rendered the White House kitchen out of commission, he treated
the football champions with a massive spread of fast food from Burger King, McDonald's, and more.
The way Trump avoided the D.C. restaurant scene could potentially be chalked up to the fact that,
as President, hitting The Cheesecake Factory after a hard day at work
might have posed a huge security risk.
However, many presidents have been known to visit local restaurants on a more or less regular basis,
and it may very well be that Trump was the only president so far not to do so.
Barack and Michelle Obama were known to enjoy a quiet restaurant night out
every once in a while. There's also the Old Ebbitt Grill near the White House, which is famous for
feeding presidents throughout the years — going all the way back to folks like Ulysses S. Grant.
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