Meat remains firmly at the center of the culture wars, especially in the U.S.

Trump this week poked fun at James Talarico, the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in Texas, saying he was absent from the campaign trail after being “food poisoned by meat ’cause he can’t stand it.”

Talarico has, in Republican eyes, committed the terrible crime of being a vegan. But the small issue there is that Talarico has said on multiple occasions that he is not vegan, or even vegetarian for that matter, and there are photos of him eating meat.

That doesn’t seem to matter, though, because the Venn diagram of vegans and members of the MAGA movement is presumably just two separate circles — especially in Texas, where the state vegetable is steak. The implication is that if you don’t eat meat, and preferably lots of it, you are somehow weak (not an issue here at POLITICO Towers, where we have kebabs available 24/7).

Trump, of course, has a famously balanced diet, with his favorite meal being two Big Macs, two Filet-O-Fish and a large chocolate milkshake.

And speaking of rump, Trump also used this week’s campaign speeches to comment on the “one hell of a beautiful ass” of rapper Nicki Minaj. “That’s hard to miss,” added the president of the United States of America.