McDonald Trump had a shift serving fries. Will the stunt supersize his base? | Arwa Mahdawi

Trump didn't work a real shift: the franchise was reportedly closed for normal business hours and the customers were all pre-screened

Remember the creepy clown sightings that started in 2016? All over the world, scary clowns started popping up, terrifying small children. The trend also frightened executives at McDonald's, who started to phase out Ronald McDonald as a result of the current climate around clown sightings in communities".

Eight years later there has been another spooky clown sighting at a McDonald's in the Feasterville, Pennsylvania, community. On Sunday Donald Trump popped into the Philadelphia-area fast-food restaurant to serve french fries to hungry passers-by. Or, more accurately, to take photos of himself cosplaying as a minimum wage worker. The former president didn't work a real shift: the franchise was reportedly closed for normal business hours and the customers who passed through the drive-thru in the 30 minutes he stuck around were all pre-screened.

Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian US columnist