‘Trump Getting His Cut’: Trump’s White House Stunt Takes Another Hit as Fresh Claims About Stolen Tips Send DoorDash Into Another PR Meltdown
President Donald Trump proudly bragged about the viral attention surrounding his White House stunt.
He seemed satisfied with a 58-year-old DoorDash worker posing with McDonald’s bags near the South Lawn door.
Days later, Trump admitted it was “tacky” once viewers discovered the supposedly random delivery driver had previously appeared at Republican-backed events tied to the president’s “No Tax on Tips” agenda.
As criticism exploded online, the company’s PR team tried to squash the dogpile by arguing with users on social media.
Instead, it turned the controversy into an even bigger nightmare as Trump claimed the legislation’s tax changes saved the woman an extra $11,000 in tips.
DoorDash is currently in the throes of another social media dragging, with Trump once again tied to the chaos.
A X user reignited frustrations with the delivery service’s pay model in a viral post.
User Miss Lucid’s Diary posted, “I heard doordash was stealing tips from their drivers so out of curiosity, I asked the woman who dropped off my tacos how much it’s showing that I tipped her; she said $5. I showed her my phone where I tipped $20 (bc the taco place was busy and she waited for my order).”
The woman did not receive a response after asking DoorDash, “Why do you do this?” A subsequent post directed readers to a Reddit thread where other delivery drivers and customers launched similar grievances.
“There might be another class action lawsuit forming soon. Doubters, you might also want to check this out bc they are def[initely] stealing tips,” Miss Lucid’s Diary wrote.
DoorDash responded, “Your DMs are closed, but ours are open. We stand by our statements: we don’t keep Dasher tips. If this order is real, we’d love to see the details — send us a message.”
Your DMs are closed, but ours are open. We stand by our statement: we don’t keep Dasher tips. If this order is real, we’d love to see the details — send us a message.
— DoorDash (@DoorDash) May 19, 2026
The response was flagged by a community note that directed readers to press releases from the offices of New York Attorney General Letitia James and the District of Columbia Attorney General Brian L. Schwalb.
The offices exposed DoorDash for using tips to “subsidize their [Dashers] guaranteed pay” and required them to resolve allegations that tips were used to “boost the company’s bottom line.”
The note corroborates that information. It states, “DoorDash settled multiple lawsuits, including $16.75M in NY and $2.5M in DC, for using customer tips to offset drivers’ base pay instead of paying them fully from 2017-2019.”
DoorDash rebuffed the claim, stating, “This is not true. Dashers always get 100% of their tips. We will DM for order details to see what actually happened.”
Miss Lucid’s Diary refused, “Throwing the dasher under the bus just so you can lock my account the second I hand over my order details and keep the credits anyway.”
In response, one user wrote, “Base + tips, you guys lower or remove base pay when someone tips well. You are absolutely stealing tips and trying to hide it here.”
A second critic remarked, “Yikes, your marketing and relations department might need to work a little overtime on this one. Terrible optics. Maybe pay the people who slave for your system to function?”
The discussion nosedived with the mention of Trump. Two hecklers commented, “Trump getting his cut from doordash,” and “Doordash scammed that money to give to trump.” A user asked, “Y’all still using DoorDash after that publicity stunt they pulled with Trump?”
President Trump has McDonalds delivered via DoorDash to the Oval Office pic.twitter.com/etN7LDCHp9
— Daily Loud (@DailyLoud) April 13, 2026
Trump bragged that the April interaction did not look staged despite the woman arriving in a “DoorDash Grandma” shirt to deliver his favorite food. He used the moment to promote his tax plan and framed the exchange as proof that it was helping everyday workers.
Critics immediately questioned the authenticity of the setup and accused the campaign of turning a delivery driver into a political prop.
The backlash only intensified after DoorDash’s PR team jumped online, insisting, “No one is claiming it was a real delivery,” a response many felt only confirmed the stunt was carefully orchestrated from the start.