Where to get free food, deals for National Drive-Thru Day 2025
The first drive-thru is thought to have been Red's Giant Hamburg on Route 66 in Springfield, Missouri in 1947, according to the National Today site. In-N-Out Burger in California began offering drive-through services in 1948 in the Los Angeles area, and Jack in the Box joined the move to cater to car customers in 1951. (Jack in the Box also came up with the idea for National Drive-Thru Day, according to the National Day Calendar site.)
Drive-thru lanes really kicked into gear after McDonald's adopted the practice in opening its first take-out window in Arizona in 1975, according to Smithsonian magazine.
'Stranger' snacks: Chips Ahoy! releasing 'Stranger Things' cookies with surprise ingredient
Now there's more than 8,100 U.S. restaurants with drive-through lanes and that's expected to surpass 9,000 in 2026, according to Polaris Market Research.
"Drive-thru culture isn't just a trend – it's core to how Americans eat," said Polaris Market Research senior analyst Apurva Agarwal in a statement to USA TODAY. "Even as delivery apps surge, the drive-thru remains the fastest, most dependable way to grab a meal. Major chains are doubling down on technology to keep lines moving and customers loyal."
If you're in the mood for a mobile meal, here are some deals. Remember, check the social media accounts of your favorite local restaurants with drive-thru lanes for additional deals.
Mike Snider is a national trending news reporter for USA TODAY. You can follow him on Threads, Bluesky, X and email him at mikegsnider & @mikegsnider.bsky.social & @mikesnider & msnider@usatoday.com
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USA Today
40 minutes ago
- USA Today
US and EU reach trade deal
On Monday's episode of The Excerpt podcast: The U.S. has reached a trade deal with the European Union after President Donald Trump's weekend trip to Scotland. USA TODAY National Correspondent Chris Kenning talks about his reporting on farmers facing a fork amid the immigration crackdown. Israel pauses some military action in Gaza amid ongoing starvation concerns. USA TODAY National Correspondent Deborah Barfield Berry discusses a bipartisan push for a new women's history museum. Hit play on the player below to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript beneath it. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text. Podcasts: True crime, in-depth interviews and more USA TODAY podcasts right here Taylor Wilson: Good morning. I'm Taylor Wilson, and today is Monday, July 28th, 2025. This is USA TODAY's The Excerpt. Today taking a look at the US Trade deal with the EU plus how immigration raids are impacting farms and their workers. And lawmakers across the aisle want a new Women's History museum. ♦ US has reached a trade deal with the European Union. President Donald Trump announced the deal yesterday, days ahead of a self-imposed August 1st deadline. He met with the European Commission's president, Ursula von der Leyen during his trip to Scotland over the weekend where the pair discussed terms and came to an agreement. The deal includes a 15% tariff on most European exports to the United States, similar to agreements struck recently between Trump and other major trading partners, including Japan. The levy is higher than the 10% rate sought by Europeans, but a reduction from the 30% Trump threatened to impose earlier in July. The agreement also includes $600 billion in EU investments in the US and the purchase of $750 billion worth of US energy. ♦ President Trump's immigration raids are hitting farms particularly hard. I spoke with USA TODAY national correspondent Chris Kenning for more. Chris, thanks for joining me. Chris Kenning: Thank you for having me. Taylor Wilson: So Chris, what are we hearing and seeing at farms around the country in this immigration moment? Chris Kenning: Across the country, we've seen these immigration raids, really broiling farms in farming communities, and there have been cases of worker shortages for at least temporarily and farmers who are worried about getting their crops picked. Early this month, we saw raids in California in the Central Valley areas that saw hundreds of folks detained and ranchers and growers and places like Texas and Vermont have also reported times when people weren't showing up for work. And so some farm groups are saying farmers are holding their breath, trying to keep things afloat, not knowing if their folks will show up or just be too afraid that the raid will happen, either the farm or in the city or town where they work. Right now, in places like the San Joaquin Valley, some folks are saying that labor is kind of holding steady, but everyone's on edge, really not knowing what's going to happen. Taylor Wilson: Well, Chris, how many people on US farms actually lack legal status? And just help us understand really why foreign born workers are so critical to farmers. Chris Kenning: There's about 2.6 million people working on farms in the United States, roughly about 42% of them are thought to lack legal status according to the Department of Agriculture. That's actually down from 55% in 2001. So it's kind of declined some, but it's still a pretty sizable number. And if you talk to farmers, they'll say the reason's pretty simple. Congress has not been able to really address comprehensive immigration reform that could find ways to create legal pathways for workers that are here or provide more visas for guest worker programs. And they say the idea that American-born residents will take these jobs is just not realistic. Few people will apply for them, even fewer will stick with it. It's very physically demanding and tough work and so the bodies aren't out there. All these issues come together and then farmers have long dealt with this stuff and now the presence of these ICE immigration forces everywhere has really exacerbated the problem. Taylor Wilson: Chris, what did you hear from some of these migrant workers themselves about how they're facing this moment and what I'd imagine really is just an incredibly anxious time for them? Chris Kenning: So there's a lot of fear, a lot of consternation. People aren't going out as much. People are staying home, but the United Farm Workers officials that I talked to said people are going back just because they have to feed their families, maybe working fewer days, maybe staying in when they're not working. I talked to one gentleman named Gabriel who's a 42-year-old man. He's from Mexico. He works in California's Central Valley. He's worked eggplant, pumpkins, different crops, getting up before A.M. working a full day for about 16,50 an hour. And he said to the majority of his fellow workers are without papers. But while they're still working now, some are considering going home. And even folks who are here on H-2A visas are said to be considering not applying or just wondering if it's just getting too dangerous. Taylor Wilson: You mentioned the H-2A visa, Chris, can you just talk us through what the visa programs and legal paths actually look like for farm workers and what do advocates want to see change in this space? Chris Kenning: The H-2A program is a program that allows agricultural employers to hire foreign workers to fill temporary or seasonal jobs when there's not enough qualified domestic workers. Right now, folks on those visas represent about 13% of the nation's farm workers. A number that's grown over the years. A lot of farmers have issues with it because it is very bureaucratic. It's expensive because farmers have to provide housing and they have to adhere to pay wage premiums, which is meant to keep those workers from pushing down wages for U.S. residents who do similar jobs. Farm worker advocates say it has problems too because it's linked to a certain employer. So a lot of times workers are stuck there and maybe more vulnerable to wage or housing abuses. That's one that people are calling for changes to perhaps to streamline it or make some changes that would allow for more folks to come in on these types of visas. Taylor Wilson: You touched on the Trump administration earlier, Chris. Where does the administration stand when it comes to farms specifically? And is there any sense that they understand some of the realities on American farms that you've outlined in this piece? Chris Kenning: The Trump administration in June said it was going to suspend farm enforcement and it reversed that. But Trump has cited the importance of farm labor several times, and they've talked about they're looking to make some kinds of changes. It's not clear exactly what those would look like. There's a bill in Congress that would create, among many things, would create a legal pathway for long-time workers, which is what a lot of both farmers and farm workers would like to see, rather than just having it apply to people who are coming for the first time. There's also been discussions by the agriculture secretary to make the H-2A program more efficient. We'll have to see what comes out of that. House Speaker Mike Johnson has told other media that larger immigration overhauls in Congress could face an uphill battle, so we'll have to keep an eye on that. Taylor Wilson: All right. Chris Kenning is a national correspondent for USA TODAY. Folks can find this full story with a link in today's show notes. Thank you, Chris. Chris Kenning: Thank you so much. ♦ Taylor Wilson: Israel will pause military action for hours each day in parts of Gaza and increase aid drops in the enclave as the country continues to face international pressure over reports and images of starving Palestinians. Aid groups have criticized Israeli leaders for months over the growing humanitarian crisis in Gaza. The country cut off supplies to the region at the start of March before reopening aid lines with new restrictions in May. In recent weeks, more than 800 people have been killed while trying to reach food according to the United Nations, mostly in shootings by Israeli soldiers posted near controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation distribution centers, which we discussed here on the show last week. Meanwhile, the World Food Program says a third of the population in Gaza is not eating for days. Beginning today, Israel will pause military action in a humanitarian area along the coast of Gaza for 10 hours at a time, from 10 A.M. to 8:00 P.M. local time each day. You can read more with a link in today's show notes. ♦ Lawmakers are renewing a bipartisan effort to build a Women's History Museum in Washington. D.C. I discussed with USA TODAY national correspondent Deborah Barfield Berry. Deborah, thanks for joining me. Deborah Barfield Berry: Thank you for having me. Taylor Wilson: So what are these calls for a new Women's History Museum? What would this entail? Deborah Barfield Berry: Actually, it's been an effort that's been going for years and years, but they've always renewed it. And this time, a bipartisan group of women from the Democratic Women's Caucus and the Republican Women's Caucus are actually urging one of the House committees to put some money behind it to actually fund the project. Taylor Wilson: Specifically who are the lawmakers involved here and just how rare is it Deborah, to see a bipartisan push like this? Deborah Barfield Berry: Well, there's several lawmakers. There are some Republicans, including Kat Cammack, who's one of the co-chairs of Republican Women's Caucus and also Hillary Scholten and others who are part of the Democratic Women's Caucus. They got together and decided they wanted to push for this effort. In terms of rare, these days, as you know, there's a lot of partisanship on one side or this side of a lot of issues, but this was one of the few issues where women from both sides of the aisle said, we want to push for this together. So they've been doing that in the past, and again, they've continued to do that now. Taylor Wilson: Well, as you mentioned, Deborah, this is not the first we've heard of this. What related bills have we seen over the years and just what led up to this point? Deborah Barfield Berry: As has been the case with many museums, many of the Smithsonian museums, including the National Museum of African-American History and Culture, and the Latino Museum as well, it's a process. So it's not just you vote for the museum and it's a go. There are different parts of it, including number one, establishing a museum, establishing perhaps a commission that will study it and see if there should be a museum. Another bill that has to push for having it on a National Mall. And then of course, you need to get funding. So there are always different pieces to it, and that's the same case here for the Women's Museum. There's been different measures along the way. Some of them passed, some of them haven't. It hasn't come through enough where they can say, we got a museum coming. So the women have pushed again to make sure there was some federal funding for the museum. Taylor Wilson: It makes sense. I mean, what hurdles might this effort still face? Deborah Barfield Berry: Well, part of the challenge this Congress is that there has been a big push, particularly by Republican leaders to cut federal spending. So not just this program, but others are coming up against that. There is also some concern about the pushback from the Trump administration and Republican leaders to push back against diversity initiatives or anything that reflects or they think feel like it reflects that. In many of the cases, it's not just about people of color when they push back on diversity. Also, women and women's issues and women programs, women's museum is all about women. So there's concern about whether that too would fall into that category where they're pushing back. Taylor Wilson: Okay, and what's next for this conversation? Deborah Barfield Berry: It was earlier this month that they pushed for or sent this letter to the House Appropriations Committee, but there's also some talk or either some hope from both sides that they could have a meeting with President Trump to push for this, because along the way he's expressed some interest in supporting it, but he's also been part of the pushback against diversity. As for what's next, some of the women lawmakers are not only pushing their colleagues to support funding for the bill, but they're also hoping that they can get President Trump to step in and be a little more vocal about it and maybe use some of his clout to sway Republican leaders to back the funding. Representative Hillary Scholten from Michigan, who also happens to be a Democrat, says she welcomes the audience with President Trump so she can make sure he knows that it's important to support this museum and that if there's any time to do it, now is the right time. Taylor Wilson: We'll see what happens. Deborah Barfield Berry is a National Correspondent with USA TODAY. Thanks, Deborah. Deborah Barfield Berry: Thank you. ♦ Taylor Wilson: Thanks for listening to The Excerpt. You can get the podcast wherever you get your pods, and if you're on a smart speaker, just ask for The Excerpt. I'm Taylor Wilson, I'll be back tomorrow with more of The Excerpt from USA TODAY.
Politico
41 minutes ago
- Politico
JD Vance's tricky sales tour
BIRTH OF A SALESMAN — Vice President JD Vance is testing out a new career path: traveling salesman. Earlier today, the VP ventured to his home state of Ohio to deliver a speech boosting Republicans' One Big Beautiful Bill Act — or the 'megabill,' as the law has come to be known around Washington. It's the second appearance Vance has made in recent weeks to sell the bill in the Rust Belt, with his first sales trip having taken him to the small manufacturing town of West Pittston, Pa., earlier this month. It is, to say the least, a challenging assignment for the vice president. Vance has pitched himself to voters as the face of a more populist GOP, one that champions the interests of blue-collar Americans, stands up to powerful corporations and questions Republican economic orthodoxy on tax cuts and welfare reform. Yet the megabill — which delivered a massive tax cut to high earners, curtailed Medicaid and food stamps programs for low-income Americans and handed out a slew of business-friendly tax perks to large corporations — is a minimally adulterated expression of the old conservative orthodoxy that he and his allies claim to oppose. Now, it's Vance's job as VP to defend the bill to the hilt in front of the increasingly working-class, big-corporation-suspicious Republican base. The knotty nature of the assignment reflects the subtly difficult political position that Vance finds himself in six months into President Donald Trump's second term. Vance, who is the presumptive frontrunner for the Republican nomination for president in 2028, rose to prominence as the leader of the GOP's populist 'New Right,' espousing an anti-interventionist foreign policy, a protectionist economic policy, a hardline anti-immigration agenda and a no-holds-barred approach to the culture war. Trump's selection of Vance as his running mate in 2024 was widely interpreted — including by yours truly — as a sign that Trump 2.0 was siding with New Right in the ongoing ideological skirmish within the GOP. Yet it's safe to say that that assumption has not stood the test of time. Though Trump has occasionally sided with conservative populists on issues like tariffs and immigration, he has hardly governed like a New Right ideologue. At prominent moments, he has even broken publicly with the populist right's position, most notably with his decision to bomb Iran, his move to ease certain elements of his immigration crackdown and his now-infamous about-face on releasing the Epstein files. Though less salacious and sensational than Epstein or Iran, the megabill stands as another sign of the ideological distance between the Trump administration — which Vance is a senior member of — and the populist New Right, which Vance nominally leads. Stuck in the middle, Vance has mostly managed to lay low, opting to serve as the mediator rather than as a partisan in various intra-administration factional fights. With that in mind, Trump's decision to tap Vance as the face of the administration's megabill stands out. In some respects, the decision recalls the self-effacing tests that Trump occasionally pushes on his subordinates to prove their loyalty: forcing then-press secretary Sean Spicer to lie about the size of the inauguration crowd in 2017, for instance, or more recently making FBI director Kash Patel, once a leading Epstein truther, go on TV to defend the administration's decision not to release the Epstein files. In this case, Trump has tasked the aspiring figurehead of the populist GOP with selling arguably the least populist bit of legislation to pass the president's desk so far this term. Vance, in dutiful vice-presidential fashion, has obliged, doing his best to put a populist spin on the bill. In his speech in Ohio today — delivered in front of a crowd of hard-hat-wearing workers at a steel plant in the small industrial city of Canton — he drew attention to the megabill's provisions limiting federal taxes on tips and overtime pay, while arguing that the tax cuts will increase workers' take home pay and ensure that a larger portion of each paycheck ends up in workers' pockets. In his speech in Pennsylvania earlier this month, he highlighted the bill's creation of the so-called Trump accounts, an automatic one-time deposit of $1,000 into a tax-preferred savings account for newborn babies. On the whole, he has cast the bill as part of the administration's broader effort — supported by tariff increases, tax incentives to manufacturers and a crackdown on illegal immigration — to reverse the 'stupid logic' of globalization, as Vance put it in Canton, which incentivized American companies to invest in ventures abroad rather than at home. Yet it's clear that Vance's populist talking points won't on their own overcome doubts about the bill's more plutocratic provisions. In Canton, Vance fielded two questions from reporters about the Medicaid cuts, the scope of which he suggested had been overhyped by the media. 'What I'd say to those Ohioans [worried about losing coverage] is don't believe every false media report that you hear,' Vance said. The cuts, he argued, are designed to prevent illegal immigrants and people not actively looking for work from receiving benefits but will not affect low-income Americans who are either working or actively looking for work. (Independent estimates have found that approximately 320,000 Ohioans will lose Medicaid coverage over the next decade under the new legislation.) There's reason to believe that Vance's feelings on the bill are more mixed. In Jan. 2024, Vance told POLITICO Magazine that he thought the 2017 tax bill — which created the tax cuts that new bill made permanent — was a 'good not great bill,' citing the inclusion of 'some more standard GOP tax fare,' some of which he approved of and some of which he didn't. Among the provisions in the 2017 bill that he did approve of was the cap on state and local tax deductions — which the megabill substantially raised. He also noted that cutting the top marginal rate — as the new bill does, in line with the rates from the 2017 bill — was not 'a high priority for him,' though he said that he would have voted for the bill, despite his reservations, if he had been in the Senate at the time. Now that the situation is less hypothetical — Vance cast the tie-breaking vote to pass the legislation through the Senate — these quibbles seem to have fallen by the wayside. In this respect, Vance's megabill sales tour serves as a tidy symbol of his polysemous political position: divided between his self-professed role as the torchbearer of conservative populism on the one hand, and his current role as the dogged defender of a decidedly un-populist administration on the other. Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out with news, tips and ideas at nightly@ Or contact tonight's author at iward@ or on X (formerly known as Twitter) at @ianwardreports. What'd I Miss? — Trump, breaking with Netanyahu, acknowledges 'real starvation' in Gaza: President Donald Trump said today he will work with European allies to 'set up food centers' in Gaza, disagreeing with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's assessment that there is 'no starvation' in the war-torn strip. 'Based on television, … those children look very hungry,' Trump said. 'But we're giving a lot of money and a lot of food, and other nations are now stepping up.' The president's remarks, which came during a bilateral meeting with U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer at Trump's golf resort in Turnberry, were far more critical of the Netanyahu strategy than he was just a few days ago when he left for his trip to Scotland. — Trump gives Putin new '10 or 12 days' deadline to end war in Ukraine: Donald Trump said today that Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin has less than two weeks to bring an end to his war in Ukraine before the U.S. president hits Russia and its trading partners with up to 100 percent tariffs. 'A new deadline of about 10 or 12 days from today,' Trump said. 'There's no reason waiting […] I want to be generous, but we just don't see any progress being made,' he added during remarks to the media after a bilateral meeting with U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer at Turnberry in Scotland. 'I'm disappointed in President Putin, very disappointed at him, so we're gonna have to look, and I'm gonna reduce that 50 days that I gave him to a lesser number, because I think I already know the answer,' Trump told reporters prior to the Starmer meeting. Trump said he would announce the change 'probably tonight or tomorrow.' — Project 2025 architect Paul Dans to challenge Lindsey Graham: Project 2025 architect Paul Dans is launching a bid to primary Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham in South Carolina today, joining an increasingly crowded field. 'What we've done with Project 2025 is really change the game in terms of closing the door on the progressive era,' Dans told the Associated Press. 'If you look at where the chokepoint is, it's the United States Senate. That's the headwaters of the swamp.' Dans this morning also reposted the Associated Press' story announcing his South Carolina senate primary challenge, saying 'Have some news this morning.' — Alina Habba's authority as New Jersey's top prosecutor questioned in new legal filing: The clash between the Trump administration and the courts over who is leading the U.S. Attorney's Office in New Jersey is already spilling into criminal cases. A defense attorney is trying to get charges against his client thrown out by arguing the Trump administration illegally maneuvered to keep Alina Habba as the state's top federal prosecutor, despite the expiration of her 120-day tenure. The defense filing, made on Sunday, comes after days of confusion over who is leading the office because of complex and contested rules over filling vacancies. — 'Shooting themselves in the foot': Pentagon officials outraged by DOD think tank ban: A wide swath of Defense Department officials fear that new rules banning employees from participating at think tank and research events — a key way the Pentagon delivers its message and solicits feedback — will leave the military muzzled and further isolated from allies. The move, according to more than a dozen officials and think tank leaders, hampers the department's ability to make its case both in Washington policy circles and to allies struggling to understand how they fit into President Donald Trump's worldview. That's particularly important now as the Pentagon assesses whether to end decades of U.S. policy and remove thousands of troops stationed abroad. AROUND THE WORLD NO GUARANTEE — The European Union has admitted it doesn't have the power to deliver on a promise to invest $600 billion in the United States economy, only hours after making the pledge at landmark trade talks in Scotland. That's because the cash would come entirely from private sector investment over which Brussels has no authority, two EU officials said. On Sunday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen struck a deal with U.S. President Donald Trump to avoid an all-out EU-U.S. trade war. The deal included a pledge to invest an extra $600 billion of EU money into the U.S. over the coming years. CYBERATTACK IN RUSSIA — A cyberattack on Russian state-owned flagship carrier Aeroflot caused a mass outage to the company's computer systems today, Russia's prosecutor's office said, forcing the airline to cancel more than 100 flights and delay others. Ukrainian hacker group Silent Crow and Belarusian hacker activist group the Belarus Cyber-Partisans, which opposes the rule of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, claimed responsibility for the cyberattack. Images shared on social media showed hundreds of delayed passengers crowding Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport, where Aeroflot is based. The outage also disrupted flights operated by Aeroflot's subsidiaries, Rossiya and Pobeda. Nightly Number RADAR SWEEP THE FUTURE OF CLIMATE MIGRATION — Tuvalu, an island nation in the Pacific Ocean that is projected to be submerged in the next 25 years, has begun a first-of-its-kind migration program to Australia. On Friday, the country of 11,000 selected the first 280 people to take part in their planned migration with Australia. Tuvalu reached a climate visa agreement with Australia in 2023 that gives immigrated Tuvaluans the same education, employment, health and housing rights as Australians. Fernanda González reports on how this system could be the model from future climate migration efforts for WIRED. Parting Image Jacqueline Munis contributed to this newsletter. Did someone forward this email to you? Sign up here.
Axios
2 hours ago
- Axios
Senator demands Musk's Starlink explain allegations it's being used by scammers
Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) on Monday demanded answers from Elon Musk about allegations that scam networks in Southeast Asia are using Starlink to facilitate fraud. The big picture: The senator in her letter cited media, UN and Treasury Department reports saying the satellite-communications network is being misused by transnational criminal groups to scam Americans. Driving the news: In a letter to Musk, the senator asked for information about SpaceX's efforts to prevent the alleged misuse of Starlink. "While SpaceX has stated that it investigates and deactivates Starlink devices in various contexts, it seemingly has not publicly acknowledged the use of Starlink for scams originating in Southeast Asia — or publicly discussed actions the company has taken in response," Hassan wrote. "Scam networks in Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos, however, have apparently continued to use Starlink despite service rules permitting SpaceX to terminate access for fraudulent activity." Hassan, who is on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, requested answers by Aug. 18 about whether SpaceX was aware scammers were using Starlink and if so, when they first learned about it and what they're doing about the issue.
