What is Donald Trumps Hamberder Dinner?

It's the January 14, 2019 White House reception where President Trump served a fast food buffet from McDonald's, Wendy's, Burger King and Domino's to the Clemson Tigers football team after their national championship win. The name comes from Trump's next-morning tweet in which he misspelled 'hamburgers' as 'hamberders'.

Where did Donald Trumps Hamberder Dinner come from?

Trump hosted the Clemson Tigers at the White House to celebrate their College Football Playoff National Championship victory over Alabama, and paid personally for fast food because the government shutdown had left much of the residence kitchen staff furloughed.

What does Donald Trumps Hamberder Dinner mean?

The dinner is remembered for the visual clash of paper fast food boxes on silver White House serving ware, and for the 'hamberders' typo in Trump's follow-up tweet that turned the whole night into a joke. The Washington Post later counted roughly 319 sandwiches, far short of Trump's claim of over 1,000.

How do you use Donald Trumps Hamberder Dinner?

The word 'hamberder' is used online as a mocking reference to the misspelled tweet and the fast food spread, often paired with the photo of Trump behind the buffet or with the deleted tweet screenshot.

Is Donald Trumps Hamberder Dinner still popular?

The dinner is remembered as a defining viral moment from Trump's first term and is regularly cited in retrospectives of his social media and White House hosting style. Hunter Walker's on-the-scene video alone drew about 5 million views in its first day.

Donald Trumps Hamberder Dinner

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Published August 17, 2026

Donald Trump's Hamberder Dinner was a January 14, 2019 White House reception where President Trump served fast food from McDonald's, Wendy's, Burger King and Domino's to the Clemson Tigers football team. The event went viral after Trump misspelled 'hamburgers' as 'hamberders' in a follow-up tweet.

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Overview

Donald Trump's Hamberder Dinner refers to a January 14, 2019 White House reception for the Clemson Tigers, the college football team that had just won the College Football Playoff National Championship1. Instead of the traditional formal meal, Trump paid out of his own pocket for a fast food buffet featuring McDonald's, Wendy's, Burger King and Domino's pizza, citing the ongoing government shutdown that had left much of the residence staff furloughed2.

The visual is what made the event stick: paper Filet-O-Fish boxes and Quarter Pounder cartons stacked on silver White House serving ware, sterling gravy boats filled with dipping sauce cups, and fries decanted into paper cups bearing the presidential seal1. Trump stood behind the spread flanked by an ornate candelabra, calling the buffet 'great American food'3.

The episode became doubly memorable the next morning when Trump tweeted about serving 'over 1000 hamberders,' misspelling 'hamburgers'3. The tweet was later deleted, but the word 'hamberder' stuck as the shorthand name for the whole affair5.

Gallery

Origin & Background

Platform

White House event / Twitter (viral spread)

Creator

Donald Trump

Date

2019

The Clemson Tigers beat Alabama in the College Football Playoff National Championship on January 7, 2019, and Trump invited the team to Washington to celebrate1. On January 14, hours before the dinner, Trump previewed the menu to reporters, telling them, 'I think we're going to serve McDonald's, Wendy's and Burger King, with some pizza. I really mean it. It would be interesting'2.

That evening the players arrived at the State Dining Room to find exactly that. Speaking beside the buffet, Trump told reporters he had ordered '300 hamburgers, many, many french fries, all of our favorite foods'3. A few minutes later, addressing the players themselves, he inflated the count on the fly, saying he had asked staff to 'send out for about 1,000 hamburgers'2.

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How It Spread

The official White House Twitter account posted a photo of the food spread that evening and picked up more than 6,000 retweets and 21,000 likes inside a day5. Journalist Hunter Walker (@hunterw) then shared a video from inside the event showing Trump gesturing at the piles of burgers; the clip pulled in more than 18,000 retweets, 63,000 likes and 5 million views in under 24 hours4.

The following morning, Trump tweeted about the dinner and misspelled 'hamburgers' as 'hamberders,' writing that he had served 'massive amounts of Fast Food (I paid), over 1000 hamberders etc.' The tweet was quickly deleted, but screenshots were already circulating, and the typo became the naming hook for the whole event3.

Reporters picked apart the numbers. The Washington Post physically counted the buffet and came up with roughly 319 sandwiches worth about $2,400, well short of Trump's claim of 1,0005. Vox tracked the count jumping from 300 to 1,000 in a matter of minutes on the same night2. Comedians piled on across Twitter, with @robrousseau joking about a fictional NBC show called 'PRESIDENT BIG BOY' and comedian W. Kamau Bell imagining a staffer sobbing about using 'Lincoln gravy boats' to hold McNugget sauce5.

How to Use This Meme

'Hamberder' is typically used online as a mocking shorthand for the fast food dinner and, by extension, for Trump himself. Common usage pairs the misspelled word with a screenshot of the White House buffet, the deleted tweet, or the image of Trump standing behind the stack of burgers under the candelabra5.