As we look back on 2024, it’s surprising how frequently McDonald’s has played a role, or at least been involved, in major news events.
From boycotts and high prices to a food recall, the campaign trail and now the stunning capture of the suspect in the healthcare CEO shooting—the Golden Arches were making all kinds of headlines in 2024.
Perhaps there is nothing more American than McDonald’s, and like many consumers, who seem to be dusting themselves off after a difficult year, the burger giant heads into 2025 in decent shape . . . despite it all.
Here is a recap of some of the biggest McDonald’s stories this year.
Customers’ boycotts topple McDonald’s Q1 sales
In October 2023, the McDonald’s Israel franchise made headlines for giving away free meals to IDF soldiers involved in the escalating Israel-Hamas War—resulting in a massive boycott by pro-Palestinian protestors in the Middle East. McDonald’s Oman responded by announcing it would donate to relief efforts in Gaza. At the start of 2024, McDonald’s chief executive Chris Kempczinski blamed the boycott and subsequent backlash on “misinformation,” but it hit the burger giant’s financials nonetheless, with McDonald’s missing its first quarterly sales target in nearly four years.
Inflation plagues consumers and McDonald’s prices soar
McDonald’s faced another backlash this year over its $18 Big Macs, leaving many price-conscious customers questioning whether it was still worth the cost. Faced with inflation and the high cost of living, customers just weren’t having it.
In order to counteract the bad publicity it was receiving, McDonald’s rolled out a $5 meal deal which seemed to win over at least some customers and gave the stock a boost as Americans came back for the more affordable burgers.
While fast-food prices have been on the rise across the board over the past decade, McDonald’s menu prices had the highest increases, doubling since 2014 for its most popular menu items. McDonald’s, however, has refuted that statistic, calling it “significantly inflated” and saying earlier this year that the price of a Big Mac had risen 21% since 2019 (from $4.39 to $5.29).
It also unveiled a new fan favorite, the Chicken Big Mac. Looking ahead, McDonald’s could continue to play a role in the national debate over our health and food supply, for better or worse—especially if Robert Kennedy Jr. is appointed head of Health and Human Services since he continues to scorn Trump’s weakness for fast food, literally calling Big Macs “poison.”
McDonald’s Quarter Pounders linked to an E. coli crisis
In a year with more than 300 food recalls, none seemed as well publicized, or as lamented, as the McDonald’s Quarter Pounder recall in October. The fast-food chain’s stock price plummeted after it became the center of a full-on E. coli outbreak, linked to onions on its Quarter Pounders. In the end, a significant number of people were affected across 14 states: 104 people became sick, 34 were hospitalized, and one person died.
![How McDonald’s was involved in almost every major news story this past year How McDonald’s was involved in almost every major news story this past year](https://www.onlinesalesguidetip.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/How-McDonalds-was-involved-in-almost-every-major-news-story-this-past-year.jpg)
Trump serves fries at McDonald’s on the campaign trail
McDonald’s also played a role in the 2024 presidential campaign, when then-Republican nominee Donald Trump tried his hand at operating the fry machine at one of the fast-food giant’s Pennsylvania locations and held a press conference at the drive-thru window. The visit was largely seen as a way to counter, without evidence, stories of Democratic nominee Kamala Harris’s having worked at McDonald’s one summer while in college.
Around the same time, the McDonald’s chronically broken ice cream machines became a rallying cry for Trump, who posted on X, “WHEN I’M PRESIDENT THE MCDONALD’S ICE CREAM MACHINES WILL WORK GREAT AGAIN!” (Their reliable unreliability was a source of jokes and memes, and even inspired McBroken, an online tracker). In the end, however, it was the Biden administration that ended up fixing the machines.
Trump called attention to Mickey D’s throughout his campaign, often having his staff pick up Big Macs and Filet-o-Fish sandwiches to serve on his plane.
Luigi Mangione is arrested in a Pennsylvania McDonald’s
When law enforcement officials first arrested Luigi Mangione, the 26-year-old suspect in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, many people were surprised that Mangione, who had alluded police for five days, was found at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania.
“He was just sitting there eating,” said Joseph Kenny, the New York Police Department’s chief of detectives.
It was also surprising who found him. Police, who received hundreds of tips and processed forensic evidence including DNA, fingerprints, and ID addresses in the course of its manhunt, eventually found Mangione after a tip from a local McDonald’s employee—which seems like a fitting end to both the manhunt and McDonald’s 2024 year in news.
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