Franklin Graham Just Told McDonald’s Exactly What Every Customer Is Already Thinking

July 13, 2026 Cat2, The Media
Pavlovska Yevheniia via shutterstock

McDonald's cut Franklin Graham from a fundraiser for having the wrong opinions.

Now he's handing them a free blueprint to save their dying business.

A 73-year-old preacher just identified the three things McDonald's spent more than $2 billion failing to figure out – and you won't believe the first one.

The Billion-Dollar Problem McDonald's Created for Itself

Graham kept it simple.

Dump the kiosks.

Bring back real people behind the counter who smile at customers instead of making them navigate a touchscreen to order a hamburger.

Serve fresh, hot burgers with melted cheese.

And bring back the fried apple pies – permanently, not as a two-week America's birthday stunt – and tell customers what McDonald's somehow never bothered to advertise: Graham says the fried version actually has fewer calories than the baked one.

That's the whole list.

Three things.

And the founder of Samaritan's Purse didn't charge a dime for it.

McDonald's, meanwhile, spent $2.4 billion on a technology overhaul that included kiosks the majority of customers say have caused them problems – screens that lock up, printers that jam, card readers that refuse payment.

One California customer tried to pay with a gift card and couldn't, because the kiosk had no way to split the balance with cash.

That's the McDonald's experience in 2026.

McDonald's Has the Data and Still Won't Listen

The numbers aren't subtle.

U.S. comparable sales dropped 3.6% in the first quarter of 2025.

Foot traffic fell 4.4% in September of that year alone.

Lower-income customers – the people who built McDonald's into a $130 billion global machine – are staying home, with traffic from that group declining nearly double digits through most of 2025.

McDonald's CEO Chris Kempczinski blamed "macroeconomic uncertainty."

He blamed tariffs.

He blamed "geopolitical tensions."

He did not blame the kiosk rollout that turned a friendly fast-food stop into a self-service nightmare where customers become, as Graham put it, just a number.

Graham's followers piled on with their own free advice in the comments.

Beef tallow instead of seed oils.

Better beef.

Fix the Chicken McNugget.

These aren't fringe requests from people stuck in the past.

This is the customer base telling a corporation exactly what they want – and the corporation spending billions to automate the experience of being ignored.

The Company That Cut Franklin Graham Should Take His Call

McDonald's removed Graham from a 2012 Charlotte fundraiser after activists pressured the company over his views on same-sex marriage.

The corporation listened to activist pressure then.

Maybe it's time they listened to a paying customer who has spent four years publicly lobbying for their fried apple pies.

McDonald's did bring the fried pies back on June 23 – for a limited time, to celebrate America's 250th birthday.

Graham's response was to go right back on Facebook and tell them to make it permanent.

He's right.

A company that can't explain why customers are leaving has a 73-year-old minister posting the answer in their comments section – and that answer is better than anything the consultants delivered at full price.

Bring back the people.

Fix the food.

Make the pie permanent.

McDonald's spent billions making their restaurants colder, slower, and more frustrating.

Franklin Graham is asking them to make it feel like McDonald's again.

Maybe they'll listen to a preacher.

Sources:

  • Bryan Chai, "Franklin Graham Gives McDonald's 'Free Advice' on How to 'Bring Happy Customers Back,'" The Western Journal, July 8, 2026.
  • McDonald's Corporation, "McDonald's Reports First Quarter 2025 Results," SEC Form 8-K, May 1, 2025.
  • McDonald's Corporation, "Summer Just Got Sweeter with the Return of McDonald's Fried Apple Pie," McDonald's Corporate Newsroom, June 16, 2026.
  • Daniel Ducassi, "McDonald's $2.4B Digital Overhaul Triggers Customer Backlash," TheStreet, September 14, 2025.
  • Tonya Garcia, "McDonald's Is Rapidly Losing a Vital Group of Customers," TheStreet, November 8, 2025.