I've spent a day eating like every living US president. The best diets have surprised me.
Bennett Rea
- I recreated over 150 recipes from politicians before I started spending a day eating just like them.
- The White House diets of the six living US presidents are wildly different and sometimes shocking.
Politicians, just like the rest of us, have to eat.
Occasionally, politicians release their own recipes carefully crafted to fit their brand and background. I started Cookin' with Congress to explore those recipes, recreating and tasting these dishes — the good, the bad, and the ugly.
After spending a few years getting to know politicians through the homespun recipes (like Mitch McConnell's flavorless Hoppin' John or Mark Warner's sopping wet Tuna Melt), I began to wonder what the most powerful people in America ate when they weren't being monitored.
I started at the top, diving into community cookbooks, archival articles, news footage, and excellent books on the topic. Eventually, I discovered the daily diets of every living president: Joe Biden, Donald Trump, Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Jimmy Carter.
It wasn't enough to simply learn about their food preferences — I had to eat like each of them, too. After creating a diet inspired by the knowledge available to me, I did.
Here's my highly subjective ranking of the daily eating habits of our living US presidents, from worst to best.
Trump picks some tasty foods, but his eating habits were tough for me to follow.
Breakfast: Diet Coke
Lunch: Well-done steak with ketchup, side salad, Diet Coke
Dinner: Two Filet-O-Fish sandwiches, two Big Macs, one chocolate milkshake, Diet Coke
Snacks: Diet Coke, Doritos
It was a true challenge to eat like Trump for a day because of all the processed foods in his diet. He also doesn't typically drink coffee — instead, he really likes Diet Coke.
According to a former campaign manager, Trump would regularly go 14 to 16 hours without eating. He usually skips breakfast and sometimes lunch in favor of salty snacks like Doritos before a hefty dinner.
That hefty dinner could look like two McDonald's Big Macs, two Filet-O-Fish sandwiches and a chocolate milkshake.
Did it taste bad? Of course not, it's engineered to taste fantastic.
Did it give me a hangover the next day? Was I angry at inanimate objects for a few hours? Did I sleep like a squirrel on speed? Yes, yes, and yes.
I found Biden's tastes to be a bit boring.
Breakfast: Special K, orange Gatorade
Lunch: Peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich, orange Gatorade
Dinner: Angel-hair pasta with red sauce
Dessert: Häagen-Dazs vanilla-chocolate-chip ice cream
Snacks: Protein bars, Fig Newtons, orange Gatorade
Biden's diet waffles between childlike and octogenarian with choices like Special K cereal, orange Gatorade, angel-hair pasta, and PB&Js.
He famously loves ice cream and reportedly ensures pints of Häagen-Dazs vanilla-chocolate-chip stay stocked in the White House kitchen.
I'm sure lots of people who aren't 6 or 80 years old eat just like Biden, but I ended the day hungry, craving protein, and bored. The boredom was the most offensive part.
Clinton's eating habits felt a little gluttonous.
Breakfast: Coffee, apple, bagel with butter
Lunch: A whole pepperoni pizza, side salad
Dinner: Chicken enchiladas, iced tea
Dessert: Peach pie
Snacks: Coca-Cola Jell-O salad
Clinton's diet felt offensive, too, but mostly out of quantity. During his presidency, he famously had quite an appetite and loved eating.
There's no doubt in my mind this man could eat. I was force-feeding myself peach pie for dessert after knocking back more pizza and chicken enchiladas than a 17-year-old football player.
Nothing tasted bad, but it was all too rich and too much. I understand why he later started following a vegan diet.
Carter's eating habits had highs and lows.
Breakfast: Coffee and juice
Lunch: Country ham with red-eye gravy (ham drippings mixed with coffee), turnip greens
Dinner: Fried chicken, potato salad, buttermilk
Dessert: Peach ice cream
Snacks: American cheese, deep-fried peanuts
My day of eating like Carter had its high marks. He's lived to be 100 drinking buttermilk and eating fried chicken with potato salad, which brings me great joy. (Not the buttermilk part — drinking that was upsetting.)
During his presidency, Carter famously didn't have much of a sweet tooth but enjoyed peanuts, cheese, and Southern cuisine.
His liquid breakfast and coffee-spiked ham lunch almost made me rank his eating habits lower, but dinner, dessert, and some solid snacks (deep-fried peanuts) raised his marks.
I felt pretty good eating like Obama ... but maybe too healthy.
Breakfast: Scrambled eggs, whole-wheat toast, green tea
Lunch: Salad with chicken, tea
Dinner: Chili con carne, roasted broccoli, honey ale
Snacks: Almonds, protein bar, Nicorette gum
The Obamas were known to have some fairly healthy eating habits while in the White House. He's a tea drinker, and although I love it, I'm fully and pleasantly addicted to coffee. It was tough to give it up.
In terms of drinks I did also have honey ale, given that's what he made as the first president to brew beer at the White House.
The food I had was filling, balanced, and solid otherwise (except for the occasional Nicorette gum — Obama is an ex-smoker), but it all felt a little too … healthy. Where's the fun?
Above all, I really enjoyed my day of eating inspired by Bush.
Breakfast: Huevos rancheros, coffee
Lunch: BLT sandwich, Lays potato chips, Diet Coke
Dinner: Cheeseburger pizza, black beans, and corn
Snacks: Chex Mix
My day of Bush-inspired eating topped the charts for me. It was fun and not too sophisticated.
Fortunately, he was known to be a coffee drinker during his presidency. I also enjoyed the spicy flair of huevos rancheros, a Mexican egg dish popular in Texas that he reportedly loved.
The rest of his diet was appealing, too, with the only hiccup being cheeseburger pizza topped with beef, bacon, pickles, and cheese, then slathered in ketchup.
If you subtract the ketchup, Bush's eating habits would be my favorite by an even wider margin.
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