After President Donald Trump posted an AI-generated image of himself depicted as Jesus Christ, and then played around in our faces by claiming he thought the image was of him depicted as a medical doctor for the Red Cross, I wrote a thing about how clear it is that the president believes we’re all as gullible and ignorant as his ever-loyal followers, and that a problem he’s going to continue to run into is that we’re not.
We’re not dim-witted enough to believe he accidentally shared a Donald Christ image because he thinks doctors wear holy robes and treat patients with a healing miracle light that emits from their hands, just like we’re not obtuse enough to believe the war in Iran is going well for the U.S. when our president is observably cracking under self-inflicted pressure, and there’s still no end to the war in sight.
And we’re also not so easily manipulated that we see Trump’s “DoorDash Grandma” grift as anything more than the poorly conceived political stunt that it was.
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By now, many of you have seen the MAGA-manufactured viral moment in which 58-year-old DoorDash driver Sharon Simmons received a $100 tip from the president himself after delivering a McDonald’s order directly to the White House.
The video of Trump’s transparent PR stunt begins with the president proving that he’s really just phoning it in at this point by asking, flat-out, on camera, “This doesn’t look staged, does it?”
Since we’re already here, though, let’s go ahead and pretend Trump was asking a serious question here.
Yes, it looks like exactly what it is: staged—badly.
It’s clear in the video that Trump staged this DoorDash delivery to promote and commemorate the first anniversary of the No Tax on Tips clause in his “big beautiful bill.” DoorDash, itself, was clearly in on the deal, as it published its own promotional material, featuring the story of Simmons, who the company said is a grandmother of 10, who “started dashing in 2022 to earn income while keeping control of her schedule,” and has since “completed more than 14,000 deliveries, and like millions of Dashers, is now keeping more of what she earns in tips” due to the president’s policy.
“Since No Tax on Tips was enacted, we estimate Dashers have saved hundreds of millions of dollars,” DoorDash wrote.
So, basically, both Trump and DoorDash are really bad at promoting the president in ways that aren’t completely tone deaf and indicative of how out of touch they are. There’s just no way they think the big takeaway from Simmons’ supposed story is that DoorDashers will make a little more money under Trump, rather than the fact that, in Trump’s economy, a nearly 60-year-old grandmother of 10 is out here running some 14,000 deliveries door-to-door just to make ends meet.
Of course, it can’t be ignored that Simmons was a willing participant in Trump’s nonsense, and it’s not like she was selected at random to play the role.
Days before her visit to the White House, Simmons appeared in a video posted by Rep. Jason Smith (R-Mo.), in which she also applauded the “No Tax on Tips” policy.
Another social media user on X had also pointed to Simmons speaking during a Ways and Means Committee public hearing in Nevada last July, which was shared by Rep. David Kustoff (R-Tenn.).
In her remarks then, Simmons said the legislation has allowed her to “stay more connected” with her family and could help fund potential future cancer treatments for her husband.
“DoorDash is truly an independent industry, and I enjoy that part of it,” Simmons said at the time. “I like being able to just do what I need to do, and freeing up this extra money means quite a bit for my family.”
DoorDash even identified Simmons as “a Dasher from Arkansas,” which was the first clue that the driver who delivered food to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C., wasn’t just the lucky driver who caught the Dash at random.
Here’s what’s hilarious about Trump’s stunt, though:
Early on in the video, Simmons, who is seen wearing her “DoorDash Grandma” shirt, makes it clear to the president that while she is there to help him promote “no tax on tips,” she won’t co-sign his irrelevant, out-of-nowhere attack on the LGBTQ+ community.
“Do you think that men should play in women’s sports?” Trump randomly asked Simmons, who immediately replied, “I really don’t have an opinion on that.”
That lady essentially said, “Look, you paid me to shill for your economic policies; shilling for your anti-trans bigotry is extra!”
Then, of course, there’s the question of whether or not Simmons even benefits from no tax on tips at all, as well as whether or not she’s just lying about how much she has saved from it.
Simmons has been on somewhat of a media tour since delivering fast food directly to Trump, and she has told media outlets that not having to pay taxes on the tips she receives as a driver allowed her to pay for her husband’s cancer treatments. She’s just been kind of inconsistent in how much savings she has reported.
“I figure that I’m probably going to be saving about $3,000 to $4,000,” Simmons told Fox News Digital. In another interview with Fox News’ America Reports, she said half of her income came from tips, and at the White House, she said she made about $11,000 in tips, which would make her income $22,000, which would just barely qualify her to save a little bit of money, according to the IRS, which, last Friday, published a list of 70 occupations that qualified for the no tax on tips provision. Food delivery drivers were included among those 70 jobs. The report also highlighted the many limitations of the policy, and who benefits from it.
Despite the name of the provision, tipped earnings may still be taxed in some capacity. The deduction only applies to federal income tax, so workers’ tips will still be subject to payroll taxes like those that fund Social Security and Medicare. They also could owe state income tax on earnings.
Additionally, the law, which applies for tax years 2025 through 2028, only allows workers who receive tips to deduct up to $25,000 in “qualified tips.” The deduction phases out for individual filers earning more than $150,000 a year and married couples making above $300,000 a year.
An estimated 6 million taxpayers report tipped wages, according to the IRS.
And here’s the part Simmons and others in her tax bracket should be paying special attention to:
While the policy may give some workers a break, the lowest-earning workers may not benefit because they don’t earn enough to owe federal income taxes. Taxpayers who earn less than the standard deduction — $15,750 for individuals or $31,500 for couples married filing jointly for tax year 2025 — don’t have to file a federal income tax return.
More than a third of tipped workers didn’t earn enough to owe income taxes in 2022, according to the Yale Budget Lab, a non-partisan policy research center.
In its press release, DoorDash all but claimed responsibility for the provision, saying, “The final version of No Tax on Tips would have looked much different without the advocacy of more than 40,000 Dashers who worked tirelessly to ensure independent workers were included in the final language that became law.” But the question remains — how many Dashers even qualify for the provision?
Also, if aligning with Trump’s policy has worked out so well for the company, how come a spokesperson for DoorDash, Julian Fels, is on social media having such a rough time convincing folks that the company hasn’t sold itself out to bolster MAGA propaganda?
Oh, I’m sorry, Fels, do people not believe Simmons’ on-camera delivery to Trump happened organically?
Again, MAGA grifting is easy when all you have to do is convince cultists of what they already want desperately to believe. For the rest of us, this PR stunt is just another example of Trump’s glaring lack of self-awareness, and that of every stooge — or company of stooges — he draws into his world of delusional, self-aggrandizing nonsense.
