McDonald’s Has White House Allies in High-Stakes Labor Showdown (1)

In a television commercial that’s become part of the lore surrounding Donald Trump’s affinity for McDonald’s Corp., he embraced a purple, lumpy denizen of the fast-food chain’s “McDonaldland” and said, “Together, Grimace, we could own this town.”

He was talking about New York, not Washington. Yet some 17 years after he suggested that alliance in a spot for the “Big ’N’ Tasty” sandwich, President Trump’s appointees are poised to deliver a high-stakes political victory for McDonald’s in one of the most important labor disputes in decades.

President Donald Trump speaks behind a table of fast food with the North Dakota State University football team at the White House.

Photographer: Oliver Contreras/SIPA USA

Labor- and management-side lawyers expect the national board that referees unionization ...