In the movie The Founder, Ray Kroc doesn’t just want to build a successful business—he wants to create an institution that represents America. He buys McDonald’s not because they had the best burgers, but because the name itself sounded American, just like “United States of America.” Similarly, Donald Trump embodies the American Dream—a deep-rooted narrative that transcends politics and geostrategic constellations, reflecting Americans’ enduring belief in individual success and the power of personal branding.
By: Lorik Idrizi
The famous movie The Founder, based on true events, attempts to explain the concept of the American Dream through the McDonald’s franchise and the character of Ray Kroc. After a series of failures, dismissals, and humiliations in his pursuit of success, Kroc finally meets the McDonald brothers, discovering in their restaurant the magic, the vision, and the very essence of the American Dream.
This restaurant had something more than just tasty food—it symbolized persistence and American symbolism. The golden arches, as Kroc called them, were envisioned as an “American church,” an institution not just open on Sundays but every day of the week.
In this context, the American Dream appears as more than just a basic concept. At its core, it is tied to equal opportunities, success through hard work, and economic advancement. However, Kroc’s story and McDonald’s franchise present a deeper dimension of this dream—not just an opportunity, but a relentless hope and determination to achieve success, often at the cost of living in uncertainty. This reflects an obsession with success, which, in the context of modern social policies and bureaucracy, may seem like a harsh and foreign approach.
Even though Trump’s election created uncertainty in the geostrategic arena, it mirrors how Americans perceive themselves and the world. Since the 1940s, the U.S. has been not just a guardian of democracy and peace but also a synonym for social progress and the American Dream. However, over the decades, with the rise of the European social welfare model, America began to lose its “cool” factor. Trump’s slogan, Make America Great Again, is not just a political tagline; it aims to restore the American Dream as an attractive and unique concept.
If we analyze the current context, we can say that, for the first time in U.S. history, a political figure has become more than just the institution of the presidency. Donald Trump is not merely the President of the United States—he is a brand in himself, the embodiment of a distinct type of American Dream. Even American diplomacy under his administration seems more “Trumpian” than aligned with the conventional foreign policy approaches that traditionally maintained a consensus on ideological shifts of the moment.
During Joe Biden’s last term, significant achievements were made in healthcare, such as:
- Expanding healthcare coverage through “Obamacare” – Biden expanded subsidies for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), making it more affordable for millions of Americans.
- Lowering prescription drug prices – His administration passed laws giving Medicare the power to negotiate drug prices, reducing costs for elderly Americans.
- Improving mental health care – Biden invested in programs to treat mental health and drug addiction, including increased funding for mental health care centers.
However, despite these reforms—which, in a European context, would be considered essential and progressive—Trump managed to win with strong support. This proves that, at their core, the American people are “believers”—not in the religious sense, but in the cultural one: They believe in magic. And that magic is the American Dream.
Biden, with his attempt to make America more like the European social welfare model, faced rejection from voters who are not yet ready to trade the essence of the American Dream for more conventional social policies.
In The Founder, Ray Kroc doesn’t just want to build a successful business—he wants to create an institution that represents America. He buys McDonald’s not because they had the best burgers, but because the name itself sounded American, just like “United States of America.” Similarly, Donald Trump embodies the American Dream—a deep-rooted narrative that transcends politics and geostrategic constellations, reflecting Americans’ enduring belief in individual success and the power of personal branding.
