Was it an honest-to-goodness viral story, or was it staged? The White House and DoorDash went viral this week after an Arkansas grandma working for DoorDash delivered a McDonald’s meal to the White House, handing it directly to President Donald Trump.
News organizations across the country, and on both sides of the aisle, covered the delivery, but many missed key facts behind the viral moment.
How the media framed the story
Much of the media took the story at face value: the president placed a DoorDash order to promote the “no tax on tips” provision in his One Big Beautiful Bill, which Congress enacted last year.
The DoorDash driver who delivered the order, identified as Sharon Simmons of Arkansas, handed the food directly to Trump, who thanked her, invited her to speak to reporters and tipped her $100.
Simmons praised the “no tax on tips” policy, saying it’s “good” and helped my family out immensely.”
When covering the interaction, ABC News headlined its story, “Trump gets McDonald’s delivered to White House to tout ‘no tax on tips’ policy,” while CBS reported, “DoorDasher joins Trump for White House press event after delivering McDonald’s.”
Fox News’ headline read, “Trump’s McDonald’s order comes with cash surprise for ‘DoorDash Grandma’ outside White House.”
While these headlines are correct, they’re missing some key background information.
Missing context
For one, the entire DoorDash delivery was staged, something DoorDash confirmed in a statement, saying the delivery was to “commemorate the first anniversary of the No Tax on Tips policy.”
The president even acknowledged the optics, saying to reporters Monday, “This doesn’t look staged, does it?”
The delivery appears even less spontaneous when you consider the level of security checks needed to get so close to the president, or even onto the White House grounds.
Another fact missing from much of the media coverage is that Simmons testified at a field hearing of the House Ways and Means Committee last July in Nevada. She praised the One Big Beautiful Bill, saying it would provide relief for her and her family, as her husband battles Stage 3 cancer.
“Freeing up this extra money means quite a bit to my family,” Simmons told the committee.
Was the media manipulated?
While the nature of the story remains the same — the president ordered DoorDash to promote the tax policy — the planning behind the scenes left some wondering if this was all White House manipulation.
One social media user called Simmons a MAGA “paid prop,” saying “everything they do is a con.”
While the president hinted at the planning by joking about whether the event seemed staged, the context behind who the delivery driver was not disclosed. Whether that was intentional or not remains to be seen.
What also remains to be seen? Whether the moment would have gone just as viral had Americans known the history behind the Dasher and the White House’s planning.