Trump served fries, but Democrats helped fix McDonald’s broken ice cream machines

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It looked like McDonald’s surprisingly persistent supporting role in the 2024 presidential campaign reached a conclusion when Donald Trump took a stab at operating the fry machine for a publicity op at one of the burger chain’s Pennsylvania locations. But now a seemingly bipartisan issue has arisen: strengthening the American McFlurry supply. And it’s looking like good news for fans of the often elusive-seeming ice-cream-and-candy treat.

The underlying facts seem clear enough: Responding to a petition from consumer group Public Knowledge and e-commerce site IFixIt, the U.S. Copyright Office eased restrictions earlier this week around repairs of certain commercial food preparation equipment—notably including the McFlurry. The details are a little weedy, but the upshot is that franchise owners who don’t want to wait for an official repair tech from the machine’s manufacturer can now legally turn to a third party to work around digital locks on the device’s copyrighted software, to diagnose problems and make fixes.

And apparently McDonald’s franchise managers have spent a lot of time waiting for official repair techs over the years, because the McFlurry is widely known for seeming to be frequently unavailable. For years, out-of-order McFlurry machines have been the object of media reports, online speculation, a Federal Trade Commission inquiry, a lawsuit, TikTok foolishness, and plenty of memes. McDonald’s has even ribbed itself about the recurring problem:

we have a joke about our soft serve machine but we're worried it won't work

It’s possible that at this point uncertainty about the McFlurry’s availability actually adds to its allure. Most famously, in 2020 someone launched McBroken, a site that offers a real-time map of McDonald’s locations, and the status of their ice-cream machines. (As I write this, the map estimates that 14.7% are “currently broken.”)

Perhaps Trump had all this in mind when he referenced the problem—but not the rule change that might solve it—earlier this week: “When I’m president the McDonald’s ice cream machines will work great again!” he pledged recently (in all caps) on social media. (He may also have been motivated by an earlier critique from the Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz, who once declared Trump “couldn’t run a McFlurry machine”). But even if this does alleviate the alleged McFlurry crisis that has sputtered along through multiple administrations, Trump has nothing to do with it.

Most of the credit instead goes to advocates of the “right to repair” movement, who have long argued that makers of electronics and other complex mechanical goods should make their wares accessible to independent repair—and be prevented from using restrictive design strategies or aggressive intellectual property restrictions to thwart DIY fixes or third-party services. And those advocates have had some success in helping pass repair-friendly laws.

While mostly associated with personal technology like smartphones, repair restrictions impact all kinds of increasingly digitized commercial devices. Farmers, for example, have for years sought more widely accessible repair tools and options for the increasingly complex tractors and other agricultural machinery made by John Deere and other manufacturers. So linking the right-to-repair idea with a popular and relatable consumer good seems like a positive development for the movement.

McDonald’s has had a relationship with the ice cream and milkshake machine maker Taylor Company since the 1950s. (The McFlurry came along in the late 1990s.) The current machines reportedly require a regular, up-to-four-hour cleaning cycle that can result in a breakdown with little warning; in some cases they may require better maintenance practices and relevant crew member training. But after a 2023 teardown of one of the units, IFixIt concluded many of the issues were software related and could be more easily addressed by non-Taylor repair techs if the law allowed it. (Taylor did not respond to an inquiry from Fast Company.)

In a statement, Public Knowledge positioned the Copyright Office decision to “free the McFlurry” as a significant one—“a victory for everyone: franchise owners, independent repair shops, and anyone who’s had to bribe their kids with a chilly treat on lengthy road trips,” according to senior policy counsel Meredith Rose. The decision, she added, “will spark a flurry of third-party repair activity and enable businesses to better serve their customers.”

Notably, the news also drew a response from Biden-appointed FTC Chair Lina Khan, noting that her agency had earlier “filed a comment in support of this change, and we’ll keep using our tools to protect people’s right to repair.” Clearly, both parties flavor-abundant and convenient soft serve ice cream. (“Democrats fixed the McFlurry machine?” one pundit joked. “Harris is gonna win every state now.”)

It remains to be seen, of course, whether this rule change really resolves McDonald’s soft-serve woes, and how quickly. The burger giant is no doubt pleased to have attention focused anywhere besides its association with a recent E. Coli outbreak. And possibly the news will inspire fresh McFlurry and other ice cream cravings among its customers. But that flurry of repair options won’t happen overnight, so McFlurry fans of all political persuasions might want to check McBroken, just in case.