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Following Trump’s Sunday visit to a McDonald’s drive-thru in Pennsylvania, the restaurant’s Yelp page faced a flood of unusual comments. As a result, Yelp has disabled reviews for the outlet in question.

Yelp Reviews Attack Trump

Many comments flooded the page before Yelp shut down the function. Some were jocular, while others were particularly critical of the restaurant owner for hosting the republican nominee. Other commenters directed sharp jabs at Trump himself, with some pointing out the ex-president’s criminal record.

“Went to this McDonalds to try the new chicken big Mac and was stunned to see a convicted felon operating the drive through,” one comment read.

“The fries were too salty as if someone who lost a major election had been crying over them for an hour,” said another commenter.

Notably, the restaurant suspended operations during Trump's publicity visit. The customers he served were all screened by Secret Service agents before the event. This controlled access led Yelp to believe that most of the mostly one-star reviews, were likely fake. 

The platform posted an alert on the page explaining its decision to disable reviews. This came after over 145 comments had already gone up on the page.

“This business recently received increased public attention, which often means people come to this page to post their views on the news,” Yelp said. “While we don’t take a stand one way or the other when it comes to this incident, we’ve temporarily disabled the posting of content to this page as we work to investigate whether the content you see here reflects actual consumer experiences rather than the recent events.”

Yelp Leadership Speaks Out

Yelp president of operations Noorie Malik also commented on the matter. Malik explained that if there is a spike in unusual activity—such as fake reviews—Yelp’s moderators will step in.

“For Yelp to remain a useful resource to the community, reviews must be based on a genuine, firsthand experience with the business,” said Malik.

The McDonald’s franchise also faced backlash for Trump’s visit to one of its outlets. Via an internal memo to employees, the company responded by saying,

“McDonald’s does not endorse candidates for elected office and that remains true in this race for the next President. We are not red or blue – we are golden.”