What Americans heard about Trump heading into the campaign’s final week: fascism and french fries

In the closing weeks of the 2024 campaign, much of the most discussed news around former President Donald Trump revolved around fascism and french fries, according to The Breakthrough, a CNN polling project that tracks what average Americans are actually hearing, reading and seeing about the presidential nominees. Conversations around Vice President Kamala Harris, by contrast, continued to focus largely around broader and more conventional stories about her campaign.

In the closing weeks of the 2024 campaign, much of the most discussed news around former President Donald Trump revolved around fascism and french fries, according to The Breakthrough, a CNN polling project that tracks what average Americans are actually hearing, reading and seeing about the presidential nominees. Conversations around Vice President Kamala Harris, by contrast, continued to focus largely around broader and more conventional stories about her campaign. The poll, conducted by SSRS and Verasight on behalf of a research team from CNN, Georgetown University and the University of Michigan, was fielded from October 25-28. It was completed largely before Trump’s rally last week at Madison Square Garden, which drew particular attention for a racist joke about Puerto Rico included in the opening comedy act. But the poll found significant public attention to stories about Trump holding an event to serve fries at McDonald’s and allegedly praising Hitler’s generals – as well as making explicit comments about a Hall of Fame golfer. “He talked about Arnold Palmer’s penis size and worked at a McDonalds for a few hours,” wrote one person who answered the survey. “What a sentence!” Another survey respondent wrote simply: “When it comes to Donald Trump, you can’t tune him or his ideas off.” Within the news maelstrom surrounding Trump, the stories that stood out to Americans often divided along partisan lines. Republicans were more likely than Democrats to mention the McDonald’s event, as well as Trump’s interview with prominent podcast host Joe Rogan.