As the Mihos family was enjoying a meal Monday at a McDonald’s in Bucks County, Pennsylvania — the same restaurant where former President Donald Trump worked the drive-thru Sunday — they noticed something peculiar: a group of armed guards clad in bulletproof vests.
“We walked in. It seemed fine. We ordered and we sat down, but then we looked to our left, and there were several armed guards just sitting there,” Jessica Mihos, a mother of four sons and lifelong Bucks County resident, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “One of [the guards] stepped outside, and I saw him walking around our car. I thought he was checking if we have our insurance or something…Then [my husband and I] are like, ‘these guys are security;’ ‘these guys are really watching and seeing what’s going on.’ It was then I made the connection [to Trump].”
The Bucks County McDonald received threatening phone calls and social media messages following Trump’s visit, Jim Worthington, the leader of Pennsylvania’s delegation at the Republican National Convention and one of the key organizers of the Trump McDonald’s visit, told the DCNF.
As a precaution to protect his employees, the franchise’s owner Derek Giacomantonio has retained the private security force he’d hired in the lead up to the event, said Worthington, who was communicating on behalf of Giacomantonio.
Despite some threats, the vast majority of the community has reportedly been supportive, with Worthington telling the DCNF, “the community is really embracing it, and a lot of people have come in here since Sunday just to patronize the restaurant,” adding that, “a lot of people anticipated [a boycott] would happen, because that is typical for some Democratic supporters to do, but [the business] hasn’t been hurt.”
Worthington also stressed that Giacomantonio has kept the private security force primarily as a precaution to ensure his employees safety, rather than because of a pressing fear of violence.
“There was chatter…There’s been messaging and phone calling and social media where people have made threats and said they are going to do this or that, but nobody has come into the restaurant to make a ruckus,” he told the DCNF. “It’s been nothing that Derek [Giacomantonio] hadn’t anticipated, and nothing that has made him think anything would actually be carried out.”
Giacomantonio has allegedly covered the security costs out of his own pocket, despite being offered outside funds.
“The guy has maintained the security there at his expense,” Worthington told the DCNF. “I asked him, ‘can we help you defray those costs?’ He said ‘absolutely not. This is, sadly, a cost of doing business, but I value my employees and my customers so I’m willing to bear that cost.’”
Trump worked the French fry station and took drive-thru orders at the Pennsylvania McDonald’s Sunday, using the opportunity to accuse his opponent Vice President Kamala Harris of lying about having worked at McDonald’s during college.
“I’m going because she lied,” Trump said.
Vice President Kamala Harris needs to win at least three out of the four battleground states in order to win, which includes North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, CNN’s senior data reporter Harry Enten said Tuesday. Harris holds a two-point lead over Trump in Pennsylvania — according to a Washington Post-Schar School poll of likely voters published Monday — well within the poll’s margin of error of 4.6 points.
Giacomantonio declined to provide a statement, telling Worthington he does not want to do any media. The Harris and Trump campaigns did not respond to requests for comment. The Lower Southampton Township police department did not respond to a request for comment.
The Daily Caller News Foundation’s Megan Brock contributed reporting.
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First published by the Daily Caller News Foundation.