California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s team seized on Donald Trump’s DoorDash stunt to point out the irony that as a convicted felon, the president would struggle to find work as a delivery driver.
Newsom’s press office team mocked Trump on social media Monday night after the publicity stunt, where DoorDash “grandma” Sharon Simmons greeted the president at the front door of the Oval Office with two large bags of McDonald’s.
“Donald Trump — a convicted felon who has also been found liable for sexual abuse — is ineligible to be a delivery driver on most apps,” Newsom’s official press office X account quipped. “But somehow he’s our president.”
DoorDash runs background checks on its delivery drivers during onboarding, and serious or violent felony convictions, as well as fraud-related offenses, could disqualify someone from a role.
Trump was found liable by a jury for sexually abusing the writer E. Jean Carroll in a civil trial in May 2023, while his New York hush money case resulted in his conviction on 34 felony counts.
In February, Trump’s attorneys attempted to get the hush money conviction tossed, and his legal team is appealing two separate verdicts in the Carroll case.
Newsom, meanwhile, is widely considered to be one of the front runners to secure the Democratic nomination for the 2028 presidential election. The governor was asked last fall whether he would give it serious thought after the 2026 midterms. “Yeah, I’d be lying otherwise,” he told CBS News, but said recently he was yet to make up his mind about running.
Monday’s stunt was to tout Trump’s move to end taxes on tipped wages in 2025.
While holding his bags of cheeseburgers and fries, Trump kept the delivery driver at his side while she weighed in on his no tax on tips measure and he addressed reporters on a wide range of issues, including the Iran war.
The two bantered about how the “no tax on tips” policy Trump championed during the 2024 election was now helping her as part of the “One Big, Beautiful Bill” passed into law last year.
Trump then addressed reporters and began a full press conference, with the president standing side-by-side with the delivery woman in her red DoorDash polo shirt, and issued his newest threats against Iran and even spoke about his conflict with the Pope.
His first question came from a reporter who asked about an AI-generated image the president posted and then deleted, which depicted him as Jesus Christ.
“I thought it was me as a doctor,” Trump claimed of the image that portrayed him wearing a robe, holding his hand to a man’s forehead and healing him with a glowing white light. “It's supposed to be me as a doctor, making people better. And I do make people better.”
The post drew criticism from some conservatives and Christians.
John Bowden contributed to this report
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