One of the most ridiculous—and unintentionally funny—moments of the 2024 campaign came when Vice President Kamala Harris tried to bolster her “woman of the people” credentials by claiming she used to work at McDonald’s during college. But what was meant to connect her with ordinary Americans ended in a campaign meltdown, and a new book just peeled back the curtain on how chaotic it really got.

The trouble started when Donald Trump, never one to miss a golden trolling opportunity, donned an apron at a Pennsylvania McDonald’s, slung fries like a pro, and drew roaring cheers from patrons. He turned Harris’s unverified claim into a visual rebuke that resonated far beyond social media. Even some Trump critics admitted—grudgingly—that the former president had nailed the moment.

The response from Harris’s team? Panic, confusion, and a serious case of buyer’s remorse. According to a new behind-the-scenes book, her advisers “debated for weeks” whether to respond at all to Trump’s attacks. Though they privately admitted Harris had only worked a few weeks at the fast food chain—if at all—her team felt the story “polled well” with voters, so they doubled down.

The internal campaign drama was pure dysfunction. Some aides pushed to lean in with a humanizing profile featuring Harris’s sister backing up the story. Others balked, worrying that more scrutiny could blow the whole thing apart. And when a mainstream news outlet started sniffing around to fact-check the McDonald’s tale, alarms rang inside the campaign.

Eventually, they landed on a generic statement “rehashing her past comments,” hoping the issue would quietly fade. But that wasn’t likely—not with Trump frying up fries in public and calling her bluff in the most theatrical way possible.

One of the most telling details? Harris reportedly watched Trump’s McDonald’s stunt and complained to aides that he was “doing it wrong.” A staffer even suggested she say that in an interview—but she never followed through. Apparently, even Harris knew it would backfire.

The campaign’s spiral reached a peak when Harris was invited to visit a McDonald’s herself. But fearing comparisons to Trump—or worse, looking like she was copying him—they declined. The irony was rich: Harris had tried to fake her way into fast food relatability, only to get outclassed at her own game by the guy with a MAGA hat and a tray of fries.

In the end, the McDonald’s fiasco became a symbol of Harris’s broader campaign misfires: out-of-touch branding, phony storytelling, and a team that couldn’t decide whether to lean in or back out. Trump didn’t just expose the lie—he made the whole country laugh at how badly the Democrats fumbled it.

As more books emerge chronicling the chaos behind the scenes, this episode is already cemented as a legendary campaign blunder. And it’s just one more reminder of what voters narrowly avoided when they rejected Kamala Harris at the ballot box.