Those McDonald’s cheeseburgers and fries delivered by “Door Dash Grandma” to President Trump at the White House Monday got a lot of play.

Trump greeted gig worker Sharon Simmons at the outside door entrance to take delivery of the order he’d eventually distribute to staff in the West Wing.

During the hand off, Trump handed Simmons a $100 tip.

It was all to draw attention ahead of the dreaded April 15 tax filing deadline to the Trump inspired legislation that is putting more money into the pockets of workers by allowing them to deduct up to $25,000 in tips to reduce their taxable income.

It was staged, like most political photo ops are regardless of party affiliation, especially given the Secret Service’s aversion to unvetted strangers getting close to the President carrying two paper bags.

Give Trump brownie points, or is that McFlurry points, for making the tax load lighter on working class folks that deliver and serve food as well as others that earn tips

But it’s too bad that the administration put in motion new Labor Department rules that will reduce the wages paid to California farmworkers on the H-2A visa program from an average of $17.43 an hour paid for low skilled farm workers down to $13.70.

Given those McDonald’s burgers have lettuce and tomatoes and the fact 80 percent of the nation’s lettuce and more than 60 percent of the nation’s tomatoes are grown in California, there is a good chance they were nurtured — and harvested by — H-2A visa workers in our own backyard in the San Joaquin Valley or less than 100 miles away in the Salinas Valley.

Now for a few little morsels to go along with those Big Macs.

The current crackdown on illegal immigrants is putting a pinch on much needed low-skill labor to harvest the lettuce given as much as 50 percent of the farm workers on the harvest circuit in California are here illegally.

At the same time, there is the issue of workers that have the legal right to be here as citizens or visa programs

Keep in mind California minimum wage is now at $16.90 (or $20 for McDonald’s burger flippers that haven’t been replaced with robotic machines.) And don’t forget visa workers are subject to federal law, meaning the state minimum doesn’t apply.

The United Farm Workers sued the Labor Department over the rule change arguing, in part, lowering the H-2A wage would depress what farm workers that are legally in the country are earning.

The administration dismisses that as a concern.

That said, it could effectively put a squeeze on non-visa workers as the temptation would be for the administration to flood the labor market with cheaper visa workers.

All of this very nicely covers up the real issue.

Given the prices McDonald’s is charging today that give non-billionaire Mickey D customers pause when they place an order that is doing a daily PAC Man act on their purchasing power, we know people are concerned about making ends meet.

Not wanting to dismiss those concerns, but they are still in a much better place and could relieve financial pressure to a degree by rethinking what is essential and what isn’t, but someone trying to do so making $13.70 an hour in California would be in huge trouble.

The Biden era regulation the Trump administration is changing with how H-2A workers are paid represents what some economists estimated as a $2.4 billion collective hit on farmers that need massive manual labor to produce and harvest the lettuce to feed those Big Mac attacks.

Why does any of this concern you?

Besides the fact agriculture production per se represents a $62 billion annual economic output for California that is by far the nation’s largest farm state, the vast majority of fruits and vegetables this nation consumes are grown here.

And immigration raids — or more precisely the fear of them — has significantly reduced the labor pool for needed California farm workers as well as those in other states.

That creates a lot of job openings.

Yet Americans that need jobs, for the overwhelming most part, won’t dirty their hands or break their backs for $20 an hour to do essential low-skill farm jobs that keeps the nation feed relatively inexpensively so we have the resources to buy more throw away clothes and change out i-Phone models each year.

That’s not just ranting or conjecture.

Department of Labor statistics released regarding job openings in 2025, show American farmers received applications for only 182 of the 415,000 positions farmers advertised.

Keep in mind last summer Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins boldly said the Trump Administration’s goal is to create a 100 percent American farm workforce.

The administration is now conceding ever so quietly that is not going to happen.

Way too few Americans want to do the needed jobs.

As such, the all-American burger ingredient policy that includes the wages of all that make it possible runs the risk of sending food prices into the stratosphere, or back to the future, if you will.

Department of Agriculture statistics that have been tracked for 120 plus years, indicate a century ago, roughly 30 percent of a typical American household’s income was spent on food. Today, is just over 10 percent.

So how do we protect the viability of American agriculture?

We slash the legal federal wages for those that come here legally in visa programs while at the same time scare away the illegal labor pool of illegal immigrants that virtually every American politician regardless of political affiliation for 60 plus years have basically steered clear off so not to ruin a “good thing” for the bottom line of consumers that they don’t want to enrage with higher food prices.

There is no easy solution.

But if we paid more attention to how food really gets to our table instead of having social media spasms over the latest celebrity hijinks or engaging in slice and dice politics, we might just find a way to avoid a trip to McDonald’s costing the equivalent of a day’s wages.

This column is the opinion of editor, Dennis Wyatt, and does not necessarily represent the opinions of The Bulletin or 209 Multimedia. He can be reached at dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com