As the countdown to the election enters its final days, Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidate, and former President Donald Trump, the Republican candidate, are making their last appeals to voters.
Their running mates are also actively involved in the campaign trail.
Harris chose Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate in August, shortly after Trump selected Ohio Senator JD Vance to accompany him on the Republican ticket. Interestingly, despite their political differences, Vance and Walz share a common preference for Diet Mountain Dew. "I had a Diet Mountain Dew yesterday and one today, and I'm sure they're going to call that racist, too," Vance, 40, quipped about Democrats at a July rally in Virginia, adding, "But it's good." According to Fox News, Walz, 60, switched to the diet soft drink after a failed sobriety test in 1995 led to a reckless driving plea.
Harris, on the other hand, seems to prefer a healthier start to her day. She reportedly enjoys a bowl of raisin bran with almond milk for breakfast, a preference she revealed in a 2018 interview with The Cut. Additionally, Harris has expressed her fondness for gumbo in a video posted on her YouTube page last year, stating, "I love gumbo."
President Joe Biden, 81, who paved the way for Harris by deciding not to seek another term, is known for his love of chocolate chip ice cream. But what about other occupants of the White House? What are their favorite foods?
Trump, for instance, is known for his penchant for fast food. He famously served burgers from McDonald's, Wendy's, and Burger King along with pizza when the Clemson University football team visited the White House in 2019. On the 2016 campaign trail, Trump shared a photograph of himself eating fried chicken from a KFC bucket on social media. Recently, Trump visited a Pennsylvania McDonald's, where he cooked and served french fries to customers while accusing Harris of lying about having worked at the fast-food chain. He also reportedly enjoys Diet Coke, according to several former staffers.
Former President Barack Obama had a taste for broccoli, as reported by Reuters in 2013, but he also enjoyed a good burger. During his presidency in 2009, Obama visited the now-closed Ray's Hell Burger in Arlington, Virginia, and ordered a medium-well cheddar cheeseburger with spicy mustard, lettuce, and tomato.
Unlike Obama, former President George H.W. Bush was not a fan of broccoli and famously expressed his dislike for the vegetable during a March 1990 news conference. "I do not like broccoli, and I haven't liked it since I was a little kid and my mother made me eat it," he declared. "And I'm president of the United States, and I'm not going to eat any more broccoli." Bush's aversion to broccoli later became a campaign slogan for the wives of President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore.
A 1992 campaign photo shows Hillary Clinton and Tipper Gore with Clinton holding broccoli next to a sign that reads, "Let's put broccoli in the White House again!" This sentiment aligns with her husband's current vegan diet. Former President Bill Clinton was a meat eater in the White House, but he eliminated all meat, fish, and dairy products from his diet after undergoing emergency surgery in 2010, as reported by multiple outlets.
Broccoli didn't seem to bother Bush's son, the 41st American president. "It's OK. I'm not nearly as turned off by it as my dad is. If you really want to get into it, I kind of like the top of the broccoli," former President George W. Bush said in 2004.
Huevos rancheros was a popular Sunday morning dish for Bush 41, according to late White House executive chef Walter Scheib. Former President Ronald Reagan kept a jar of jelly beans on his desk in the Oval Office or on a table during Cabinet meetings in the 1980s.
Before his assassination in 1963, former President John F. Kennedy enjoyed creamy New England fish chowder, according to Rene Verdon, who was White House chef for Kennedy and, later, Lyndon B. Johnson.
Johnson, Kennedy's vice president who became commander-in-chief after JFK's death, had a penchant for vegetables, as detailed in "The White House Family Cookbook," first published in 1987. Henry Haller, the longest-serving presidential chef at the White House, wrote the book and revealed some of Johnson's favorite foods, including the okra he ate from his Texas ranch and how he enjoyed spinach, often in a light souffl.
Johnson also routinely ate bacon in bed with his wife, Lady Bird Johnson, and wanted guests to be served barbecue ribs at a party he held on the White House lawn after announcing he would not seek reelection in 1968, Haller wrote.
William Howard Taft, the nation's 27th president from 1909-1913, enjoyed steak at all times of the day, according to former White House chief housekeeper Elizabeth Jaffray.
Taft would eat a 12-ounce steak for breakfast, lunch, and dinner each day, Jaffray wrote in her book "Secrets of the White House." However, he never paired his steak with eggs, the book said. "President Taft liked every sort of food with the single exception of eggs," Jaffray wrote. Eventually, the portly Taft ordered a reduction in steak sizes from 12 ounces to 6, Jaffray claimed.
Former President Abraham Lincoln enjoyed corned beef and cornbread, but first lady Mary Todd Lincoln said her husband's favorite dish was chicken fricassee. Not only that, but Lincoln also loved to cook, according to Rae Katherine Eighmey, who wrote the book "Abraham Lincoln in the Kitchen: A Culinary View of Lincoln's Life and Times." The book explores ledgers from Lincoln's grocery bills before his presidency in Illinois and how Lincoln turned a backyard grill into a cast-iron stove.
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