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Come Fan with UsThursday, August 6, 2026

Well, Trump serving fast food to college champions is now a White House tradition

North Dakota State became the second national champion to be served fast food in 2019.

In January, President Donald Trump served the FBS national champion Clemson Tigers a buffet of fast food served on silver platters, including Big Macs and Wendy’s hamburgers. Well it appears that serving college athletes fast food is now a White House tradition, as FCS national champ North Dakota State discovered:

(College football has multiple national champions each year, since there are different divisions and championships. Clemson and NDSU won their respective halves of Division I, and there are also Division II and III national champs each year. NDSU is the first FCS team to be honored at the White House since 1995, when Youngstown State was invited to the White House by President Bill Clinton.)

After Clemson’s visit, Trump suggested that fast food was served because at the time, the government was shut down. From the White House pool report:

They had a fantastic game against Alabama and they’re all here. They’re right outside the room and I think we’re going to let you see them. But I’ll bet you, as much food as we have — we have pizzas, we have 300 hamburgers, many, many french fries, all of our favorite foods — I want to see what’s here when we leave, because I don’t think it’s going to be much.

The reason we did this is because of the shutdown. We want to make sure that everything is right, so we sent out, we got this.

At the time of the Bison visit, however, the government was indeed not shutdown. In the Grand Folks Herald’s reported schedule for the Bison, they were supposed to eat in the U.S. Capitol, hosted by North Dakota Sen. John Hoeven. Instead, the players got fast food in the White House, meaning this is apparently now a thing throughout the Trump administration, regardless of whether the government is open at the time or not.

While these fast food spreads given to Clemson and NDSU appear very similar, the Bison got a much better meal overall.

1. North Dakota State’s meal is infinitely better than Clemson’s because it included Chick-fil-A.

Look, I’m not going to hear any counterarguments against this, Chick-fil-A is a superior fast food establishment. Naturally, NDSU’s meal is better than Clemson’s, which did not have any breaded chicken sandwiches up to par with Chick-fil-A’s.

2. It looks like whoever assembled the White House fast food went away with the “salads” that Clemson players got.

You can see the salads from Clemson’s meal in the plastic containers below:

President Trump Hosts College Football Champion Clemson Tigers At White House
Photo by Chris Kleponis - Pool/Getty Images

I’m sure Wendy’s, McDonalds, or Burger King salads are fine to eat, but you don’t get a salad when you’re eating from a fast food restaurant. It’s science.

Twitter/@NDSUfootball

3. No Filet-O-Fishes, either.

Yes, part of Clemson’s spread included McDonald’s fish sandwiches. I hope none of you Tiger players ate these:

Anything is better than a Filet-O-Fish, but especially when it’s Chick-fil-A.

4. The meal may not have included Chick-fil-A fries, which is a tragedy.

At least one White House reporter didn’t spot any waffle fries, but CFA is better than none at all, fries or no fries.

I don’t think the Bison minded getting to eat free fast food, but it’s still pretty comical to have two college football teams eat it at the White House within three months.

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