Trump served up pizza to supporters, Harris leaned into BBQ

When Donald Trump’s campaign visited Michigan this election cycle, staffers and supporters ate pizza.
A lot of pizza.
When Kamala Harris’s people came to town, they liked BBQ and pub fare.
Campaign finance records log the expenses each camp filed and they show the food choices between the two campaigns were as varied as the candidates they represent.
The Trump campaign’s six biggest food vendors in Michigan by amount spent were all pizza places. Number one was Pizza Parliament, a food truck service based in Zeeland.
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The company menu includes political names for their pizzas. Their pepperoni is called bi-partisan. A three-cheese offering is called majority leader and a veggie pizza is known as the Green Party.
When Trump visited a manufacturing facility on the west side of the state in September 2023, Pizza Parliament got the call and ended up selling $5,100 worth of pizzas.
“We catered one of their rallies,” said owner Justin Gunnink. “It was a small rally but he paid for everyone’s food. It was maybe 400-500 people.”
Gunnink said he’s catered events for Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in the past and would have been open to serving the Harris campaign if they’d called.
“When it comes to the business, I don’t really side with one side or the other,” he said. “You know, money is money.”
The Trump campaign also made 17 runs to Domino’s Pizza in Michigan totaling just under $1,700. Little Caesars got 16 runs, but only cost $510. Enzo’s Pizzeria in Grand Blanc landed a $451 order. Cottage Inn in Southfield and Green Lantern in Royal Oak landed about $200 apiece.
Trump delivered the Green Lantern pies to volunteers working in the Roseville campaign office.
It can be difficult to pinpoint the exact amount spent on certain foods because the reports include multiple food-related categories. Some are listed as catering an event. Others are reimbursing staff for their meals. Still others are part of lodging costs, lumped in with facility rental fees or ordered from Uber Eats and DoorDash.
The figures come from the official candidate committees’ expenses submitted thus far. Additional expenses continue to be submitted. The figures don’t include data from other committees and PACs supporting the candidates. Still, some names are obvious and when all states are included, the pizza theme gives way to other forms of fast food.
Finance reports show that the Trump campaign’s most common food vendor nationally was McDonald’s, where it expensed 153 visits totaling more than $41,000. Chick-fil-A, Jimmy John’s and Dunkin were the next most frequent food vendors.
Some food was decidedly more high-end.
The campaign logged two food expenses at the Mar-A-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida, which Trump owns, totaling $11,484 and two more at his Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, totaling $6,581. The reports don’t say how many people were fed on each tab.
For the purposes of this analysis, the Harris campaign spending includes bills when she was running for vice president with Joe Biden, and when she replaced him at the top of the ticket.
In Michigan, the Harris campaign reports show just one pizza place, BC Pizza in Harbor Springs, which landed a $234 order in September.
In May, when Biden was still expected to be the Democratic nominee, the campaign launched an initiative known as BBQs for Biden-Harris, saying in an announcement that “the campaign will continue to engage voters across Michigan with food, music, and fun while also highlighting the stakes of the 2024 election for working families from jobs to health care.”
King of Ribs and Soul Food, a food truck service based in Belleville, catered two Biden-Harris events in May to become the campaign’s largest Michigan food vendor. It was paid $9,345.
Walker’s Traveling BBQ in Pontiac catered two fundraising events for the Harris campaign in June and billed $3,151.
Baldwin Smokehouse BBQ in Saginaw, PBJS BBQ in Jackson and Skinny Kenny’s BBQ in Kalamazoo also did work for the Biden-Harris campaign.
In Detroit’s Rivertown district, the CRED Café & Speakeasy landed two events from the campaign, including a watch party for a Harris interview with talk show host Charlamagne tha God. The pair of events billed $7,800.
Harper Woods-based Motown Dawg Slingers, a gourmet sausage vendor, landed more than $4,400 in business.
At a national level, the Harris campaign, and the Biden campaign before it, seemed to expense far less on fast food than their Republican counterparts, spending more time and money at fast-casual restaurants.
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The campaign expensed 21 visits to Chipotle totaling $11,542 and 11 trips to Panera totaling $9,015.
The Harris campaign was headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware, where Biden lives. Dimeo’s Pizza there was a frequent stop for campaign staff. Expense reports show 24 visits there, totaling more than $15,000.
They also made four runs to Domino’s Pizza, spending $2,042.
Contact John Wisely: [email protected]. On X @jwisely