As Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, the former president, prepare for a November showdown for the White House, their choices of running mates have garnered recent headlines.
Harris selected Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate on Tuesday, less than a month after Trump picked Ohio Sen. JD Vance to join him on the Republican ticket.
Despite the political differences, Vance and Walz seem to have something in common: They both enjoy Diet Mountain Dew.
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“I had a Diet Mountain Dew yesterday and one today, and I’m sure they’re going to call that racist, too,” Vance, 40, said of Democrats during a July rally in Virginia.
“But it’s good.”
Ohio Sen. JD Vance, at left, and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz are both said to drink Diet Mountain Dew. (Drew Hallowell; Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)
Walz, 60, traded in alcohol for the diet soft drink after a failed sobriety test in 1995 led to a reckless driving plea, as has been widely reported.
Breakfast cereal, plus gumbo
Harris, for her part, appears to enjoy cereal for breakfast.
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She favors a bowl of raisin bran with almond milk in the morning, according to comments she made to The Cut in 2018.
Harris is also fond of gumbo, she said in an interview posted on her YouTube page last year.
Trump has enjoyed eating fried chicken over the years, while Harris conveyed her “love” of gumbo in an interview. (iStock)
“I love gumbo,” she said in the video.
Ice cream and more ice cream
President Joe Biden, 81, who cleared the path for Harris when he announced he would not seek another term, has made his affinity for chocolate chip ice cream no secret.
President Biden is shown enjoying a chocolate chip ice cream cone in Cleveland, May 2021. (Nicholas Kamm/AFP via Getty Images)
But what have other White House residents proclaimed as their favorite foods over the years?
Here’s a few.
Fast food and soft drinks
Trump has been known to spring for fast food, famously serving burgers from McDonald’s, Wendy’s and Burger King with pizza when the Clemson University football team visited the White House in 2019.
Former President Trump is said to enjoy fried chicken (shown in inset) — while Vice President Kamala Harris has said she loves gumbo. (Reuters; iStock; NRA)
During the 2016 campaign trail, Trump used social media to share a photograph of himself eating fried chicken from a KFC bucket.
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He also has a taste for Diet Coke, several former staffers have said.
Then-President Donald Trump presents fast food to be served to the Clemson Tigers football team at the White House in 2019. (Chris Kleponis-Pool/Getty Images)
Broccoli or no broccoli?
Former President Barack Obama claimed broccoli as one of his favorite foods, Reuters reported in 2013 — but he wouldn’t say no to a burger either.
During his presidency in 2009, Obama visited the now-shuttered Ray’s Hell Burger in Arlington, Virginia, and ordered a medium-well cheddar cheeseburger with spicy mustard, lettuce and tomato.
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Unlike Obama, however, former President George H.W. Bush didn’t like broccoli and famously disparaged 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 proclaimed at the time.
Former President George H.W. Bush hated broccoli — yet former President Barack Obama said it was his favorite food. (Ron Sachs-Pool/Getty Images; iStock; Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
“And I’m president of the United States, and I’m not going to eat any more broccoli.”
Bush’s disdain for broccoli later became a campaign slogan for the wives of President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore.
A photo of Hillary Clinton and Tipper Gore from the 1992 campaign shows Clinton holding broccoli next to a sign that reads, “Let’s put broccoli in the White House again!”
That suited her husband’s current vegan diet. Former President Bill Clinton was a meat eater in the White House, but he cut out all meat, fish and dairy products after undergoing emergency surgery in 2010, according to multiple outlets.
Former President Bill Clinton apparently sticks to a vegan diet these days, but he ate meat when he was in the White House. He’s seen here on the campaign trail with running mate Al Gore and their wives, Tipper Gore, right, and Hillary Clinton, third from right, at a Georgia produce stand. (Paul J. Richards/AFP via Getty Images)
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, late White House executive chef Walter Scheib once said.
Jelly beans, chowder and Texas okra
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.
A jar of jelly beans was often found near President Ronald Reagan during his two terms in the White House. (iStock; Diana Walker/Getty Images)
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, became commander-in-chief after JFK’s death — and Johnson’s proclivity for vegetables was detailed in “The White House Family Cookbook,” first published in 1987.
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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 soufflé.
Johnson also routinely ate bacon in bed with his wife, Lady Bird Johnson.
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.
Steak day and night
William Howard Taft, the nation’s 27th president from 1909-1913, enjoyed steak in the morning, afternoon and evening, 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.”
Former President William Howard Taft enjoyed steak for breakfast, lunch and dinner. (iStock; MPI/Getty Images)
But 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.
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Eventually, the portly Taft ordered a reduction in steak sizes – from 12 ounces to 6, Jaffray claimed.
Chicken dinner
Former President Abraham Lincoln enjoyed corned beef and cornbread, but first lady Mary Todd Lincoln said her husband’s favorite dish was chicken fricassee.
President Abraham Lincoln’s favorite dish was said to be chicken fricassee. (iStock; Stock Montage/Getty Images)
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.”
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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.
