• Trump praised McDonald's sanitation standards Sunday after stinting as a fry cook.
  • Days later, the CDC announced a deadly E. coli outbreak linked to the chain.
  • Trump has lauded McDonald's 'cleanliness' and reportedly favors the chain for fear of being 'poisoned.'

Former President Donald Trump took time during his heavily-hyped stint as a McDonald's fry cook on Sunday to praise the restaurant chain's cleanliness.

Two days later, the CDC announced a deadly E. coli outbreak that's being linked to the restaurant chain's signature — and lucrative — Quarter Pounder burger.

Roughly 49 people across 10 states have fallen ill, and one person has died.

McDonald's shares plunged in response to the news, and the fast food giant said it was temporarily removing the Quarter Pounder from its menu in several states.

"Food safety is so important to me and everyone at McDonald's," president Joe Erlinger said in a statement, adding a majority of states and menu items were not impacted.

Trump likes 'cleanliness' — and reportedly fears being 'poisoned'

Trump has yet to publicly comment on the outbreak — though he's been open about his love of McDonald's. Speaking at a CNN Town Hall in 2016, he cited its cleanliness as a draw.

"I'm a person that — I like cleanliness, I like clean," he said, per a transcript of the event. "One bad hamburger, you can destroy McDonald's."

"I think you're better off going there than, maybe, someplace that you have no idea where the food's coming from," he continued. "It's a certain standard."

In his 2018 book "Fire and Fury," Michael Wolff reported Trump often ate McDonald's due to a "fear of being poisoned."

On Sunday, Trump heaped praise on the restaurant's hygiene standards while standing in as a fry cook.

"It's beautiful. It's clean. It's really nice. You never touch them," he said when asked about preparing french fries. "I always figured that someone stuffs them in with their hand, and I don't like that. They don't do it that way. You never touch them. It's really great."

Trump's mission for visiting the McDonald's was primarily to highlight Vice President Kamala Harris' personal background, as he has claimed — without any evidence — that his Democratic opponent never worked at the fast-food chain in 1983.

The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

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