Several of the president’s friends — one of them a billionaire owner of a chain of grocery stores — said they cannot recall Mr. Trump ever doing his own grocery shopping. John A. Catsimatidis, the owner of Gristedes Foods, a chain of small grocery stores in Manhattan and Brooklyn, said in an interview that he has known the president for 40 years, but cannot recall a time when Mr. Trump entered one of his stores.
“I wouldn’t know,” Mr. Catsimatidis said. “I don’t have any pictures with him in Gristedes.”
Thomas J. Barrack Jr., another billionaire friend of the president’s, was blunt when asked if Mr. Trump ever did his own grocery shopping.
“No,” Mr. Barrack said in a text complete with a smiley face emoji. Mr. Barrack, a financier, did not respond to a follow-up question about how he got his own groceries.
