President Trump, a man whose distinguished culinary preferences include a McDonald’s Big Mac, Burger King, Lays potato chips, KFC, and a well-done New York strip with ketchup, is being lobbied by the worst, peskiest kind of a do-gooder: an adorable 9-year-old vegan named Evan who wants the president to be vegan for the month of January.
The hook?
If Trump actually does it, Million Dollar Vegan will donate a million dollars to the veterans group of Trump’s choice. There’s even a full-page ad Sunday splashed in the pages of the New York Times. In it, “Vegan Evan” — as he calls himself — writes a letter to Trump asking him to be vegan for a good cause.
“It would really be a blessing for them,” Vegan Evan told me by phone, adding, “I’ve wanted to ask the president to be a vegan for a longtime. If people saw him doing this, it would make a lot of change in the world.”
I wrote Trump’s Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham for comment Sunday.
Will Trump become vegan for a month?
Grisham didn’t reply by Mirror deadline.
Vegan Evan also refers to himself as “President Evan” since he’s president of Animal Hero Kids. He calls himself the world’s youngest lifestyle coach even though he has yet to land clients let alone the Big Kahuna. You can watch him speak here as he delivers a “Health of the Union” address.
Evan plays the part of kid politician in a dark suit, white shirt and a red, white, and blue bowtie. His speech is an impossibly long 19 minutes long, but a few minutes in, you get the gist.
The kid’s platform is, um, familiar: “Make America Healthy Again.”
Obnoxious billboards will also try to tug at Trump’s heartstrings at his official residence in the Sunshine State. The signs will be posted in Washington and West Palm Beach.
Vegan Evan is trying to make the potential culinary ordeal as easy as possible for Trump. His people will provide the president with a chef who will cook him plant-based versions of his favorite foods to make the whole thing less painful. They’ll also throw in a nutritionist.
“Well, if he does want to eat, let’s say, sausages or burgers, he can do that,” Vegan Evan assures.
I recently spoke to him by phone in a call that rightfully had two publicist babysitters.
Vegan Evan held his own.
At times, a reporter needs to make him rewind and repeat himself because his thoughts can be excitedly all over the place. But he knows his stuff. To be sure, he has watched the Netflix documentary, What the Health.
He lives in Melbourne, Fla, but was hanging out in Park City, Utah at the time of the call.
Vegan Evan says he wasn’t raised vegan, but became one around the time he was in Kindergarten because, as he puts it, animals have feelings. “It made me really sad,” he said. When his mom tried to feed him animal products, he replied, “No, mommy, if the animals are being hurt, I don’t want it.”
I ask if he misses cupcakes or pizza.
“No, because those are some of my favorites,” he says, reeling off his vegan staples that include cashew cheese quesadillas and vegan calzones.
He has quippy one-liners.
When asked what he thinks of avid animal hunters — such as Donald Trump Jr. — Vegan Evan says: “I think there’s only one humane way to shoot an animal and it’s with a camera.”
I ask if he’s a Trump supporter. “I’m only 9, so I’m not really into politics,” he says. “I know he’s our president and he fights for our country. To be a great country, it has to be a healthy country.”
But his primary message is crystal:
Get the president to be vegan and the veterans will get their dough.