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Donald Trump works the fry station at a Pennsylvania McDonald's

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FEASTERVILLE-TREVOSE, Pa. -

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump manned the fry station at a McDonald's in Pennsylvania on Sunday before staging an impromptu news conference, answering questions through the drive-thru window.

As reporters and aides watched, an employee showed Trump how to dunk baskets of fries in oil, salt the fries and put them into boxes using a scoop. Trump, a well-known fan of fast food and a notorious germophobe, expressed amazement that he didn't have to touch the fries with his hands,

鈥淚t requires great expertise, actually, to do it right and to do it fast,鈥 Trump said with a grin, putting away his suit jacket and wearing an apron over his shirt and tie.

The visit came as he's tried to counter Democratic nominee Kamala Harris' accounts on the campaign of working at the fast-food chain while in college, an experience that Trump has claimed 鈥 without offering evidence 鈥 never happened.

A large crowd lined the street outside the restaurant in Feasterville-Trevose, which is part of Bucks County, a key swing voter area north of Philadelphia. Later Sunday, Trump was attending an evening town hall in Lancaster before catching the Pittsburgh Steelers home game against the New York Jets.

After serving bags of takeout to people in the drive-thru lane, Trump leaned out of the window, still wearing the apron, to take questions from the media staged outside. The former president, who has constantly promoted falsehoods about his 2020 election loss, said he would respect the results of next month's vote 鈥渋f it's a fair election.鈥

He joked about getting one reporter ice cream and when another asked what message he had for Harris on her 60th birthday on Sunday, Trump said, 鈥淚 would say, Happy Birthday, Kamala,鈥 adding, 鈥淚 think I鈥檒l get her some flowers.鈥

Trump did not directly answer a question of whether he might support increased minimum wages after seeing McDonald鈥檚 employees in action but said, 鈥淭hese people work hard. They鈥檙e great.鈥

He added that 鈥淚 just saw something鈥 a process that鈥檚 beautiful.鈥

When aides finally urged him to wrap things up so he could hit the road to his next event, Trump offered, 鈥榃asn鈥檛 that a strange place to do a news conference?鈥

Trump has long questioned Harris' story of working at McDonald's

Trump has fixated in recent weeks on the summer job Harris said she held in college, working the cash register and making fries at McDonald鈥檚 while in college. Trump says the vice president has 鈥渓ied about working鈥 there, but not offered evidence for claiming that.

鈥淲hen Trump feels desperate, all he knows how to do is lie,鈥 Harris campaign spokesman Ian Sams said Sunday. 鈥淗e can鈥檛 understand what it鈥檚 like to have a summer job because he was handed millions on a silver platter, only to blow it.鈥

In an interview last month on MSNBC, the vice president pushed back on Trump鈥檚 claims, saying she did work at the fast-food chain four decades ago when she was in college.

鈥淧art of the reason I even talk about having worked at McDonald鈥檚 is because there are people who work at McDonald鈥檚 in our country who are trying to raise a family,鈥 she said. 鈥淚 worked there as a student.鈥

Harris also said: 鈥淚 think part of the difference between me and my opponent includes our perspective on the needs of the American people and what our responsibility, then, is to meet those needs.鈥

Trump has long spread groundless claims about his opponents based on their personal history, particularly women and racial minorities.

Before he ran for president, Trump was a leading voice of the 鈥渂irther鈥 conspiracy that baselessly claimed President Barack Obama was from Africa, was not an American citizen and therefore was ineligible to be president. Trump used it to raise his own political profile, demanding to see Obama鈥檚 birth certificate and five years after Obama did so, Trump finally admitted that Obama was born in the United States.

During his first run for president, Trump repeated a tabloid鈥檚 claims that Texas Sen. Ted Cruz鈥檚 father, who was born in Cuba, had links to President John F. Kennedy鈥檚 assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald. Cruz and Trump competed for the party鈥檚 2016 nomination.

In January of this year, when Trump was facing Nikki Haley, his former U.N. ambassador, in the Republican primary, he shared on his social media network a post with false claims that Haley鈥檚 parents were not citizens when she was born, therefore making her ineligible to be president.Supporters of Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump cheer outside of a McDonald's in Feasterville-Trevose, Pa., after Trump made a campaign stop, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024, (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)Haley is the South Carolina-born daughter of Indian immigrants, making her automatically a native-born citizen and meeting the constitutional requirement to run for president.

And Trump has continued to promote baseless claims during this campaign. Trump said during his presidential debate with Harris that immigrants who had settled in Springfield, Ohio, were eating residents鈥 pets 鈥 a claim he suggested in an interview Saturday was still true even though he could provide no confirmation.

Trump's visit created a spectacle in Pennsylvania

Police closed the busy streets around the McDonald鈥檚 during Trump's visit. Authorities cordoned off the restaurant as a crowd a couple blocks long gathered, sometimes 10- to 15-deep, across the street straining to catch a glimpse of Trump. Horns honked and music blared as Trump supporters waved flags, held signs and took pictures.

John Waters, of nearby Fairless Hills, had never been to a Trump rally and had hoped to see the former president so close to his house after missing other nearby rallies.

鈥淲hen I drove up, all the cars, unbelievable, I was like, 鈥楬e鈥檚 here鈥檚, he鈥檚 coming, he鈥檚 definitely coming with this all traffic,鈥欌 Waters said.

Trump is especially partial to McDonald's Big Macs and Filet-o-Fish sandwiches. He鈥檚 talked often about how he trusts big chains more than smaller restaurants since they have big reputations to maintain, and the former president鈥檚 staff often pick up McDonald鈥檚 and serve it on his plane.

Barrett Marson, a Republican strategist in Arizona, said using a campaign visit to focus on the claims about McDonald's four decades ago is a 鈥減uzzling detour,鈥 but that Trump is 鈥渘ot above throwing anything on the wall to see if it sticks.鈥

鈥淲hen Donald Trump isn鈥檛 talking about the economy and illegal immigration, he鈥檚 off topic about the things that people care about,鈥 Marson said.

Associated Press writer Will Weissert in Washington contributed to this report.

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