

I think a lot of it is that he spends much more strategically and with lots of strings attached. He also does a lot of work to basically indoctrinate folks who aren’t big players and fund them until they are - JD Vance being a prime example. He’s basically developed into a cult leader for rich wannabes and ends up owning their asses.
One other thing I haven’t seen mentioned is selling ice cream is only a sustainable business for a few months out of the year in many places. Whereas you can sell burgers/dogs/etc year-round. But yeah, as far as I know they’ve always sold fast food - their burgers were a fave of mine when I was a kid in the 70s.