Fast-food chain Steak ‘n Shake joked on social media that President Donald Trump’s nominee for health and human services secretary paid a visit to its drive-thru after it announced a new change to its fry preparation.
The fast-food chain, which populates the Midwest and South, recently announced that all its locations will ditch vegetable oil by the end of February and instead use “100% all-natural beef tallow.” The move comes as Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has pushed the slogan “Make America Healthy Again” in both campaigning for Trump and warning about ultraprocessed foods.
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“Did this man just pull up in our drive-thru?” Steak ‘n Shake’s X account wrote, posting a photo of Kennedy seated in a car.
Did this man just pull up in our drive-thru? pic.twitter.com/Os7RahtMxB
— Steak 'n Shake (@SteaknShake) January 21, 2025
Last year, Trump made a viral visit to a Pennsylvania McDonald’s, in which he donned an apron and passed out food to customers in the restaurant chain’s drive-thru. Shortly after, Kennedy wrote that McDonald’s once used beef tallow when making its iconic fries before phasing that out for seed oils in the 1990s, adding a note regarding the nation’s “obesity epidemic” beginning when restaurants switched to seed oils in food preparation.
“People who enjoy a burger with fries on a night out aren’t to blame, and Americans should have every right to eat out at a restaurant without being unknowingly poisoned by heavily subsidized seed oils,” Kennedy wrote on Instagram. “It’s time to Make Frying Oil Tallow Again.”
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Secretary of State Marco Rubio is the only nominee for Trump’s Cabinet to be confirmed. Meanwhile, Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) has indicated that the paperwork needed to schedule Kennedy’s confirmation hearing could be complete by the end of Tuesday and that his hearing could then be scheduled.
While Kennedy has yet to be confirmed as HHS secretary, the Food and Drug Administration announced last week that it is banning the artificial food color Red Dye No. 3, which has been identified as possessing carcinogenic properties. In preparation for this ban, manufacturers will have until either Jan. 15, 2027, or Jan. 18, 2028, to stop using this dye.