After a popular Italian restaurant chain dished out an online response to a curious diner about its new unlimited pasta pass, politically-minded social media users, including those at the top of the food chain, are taking a stand.

Olive Garden took to X on Wednesday to promote its new deal, which offers customers the chance purchase a “Never Ending Pasta Pass” for $100 plus tax, giving the first 10,000 people to purchase their pass 13 weeks of unlimited pasta.

A user posed a question to the iconic American restaurant chain, asking whether they could purchase the unlimited pasta pass and share it with their family.

WATCH: ELISSA SLOTKIN SAYS SAVE AMERICA ACT WOULD MAKE IT ‘HARD FOR ANY DEMOCRAT’ TO WIN AN ELECTION

“No. The Never-Ending Pasta Pass is only for use by the Passholder whose name is printed on the Pass,” Olive Garden replied. “Passes are personalized and non-transferable.”

“Passholders must present a valid photo I.D. along with the Pass at the time of ordering,” the chain instructed from its X account.

Immediately, the political right seized the the opportunity to prove a point — that Olive Garden appears more strict about its unlimited pasta promotion than Democrat-run states are about voting. The timely post comes as Trump continues to push for what would be a signature legislative victory — the SAVE Act — which, if passed, would require photo identification to vote. It has faced fierce pushback from the left-wing, who have argued against requiring proof of identity to cast a ballot in elections.

“Olive Garden takes their Pasta Pass security more seriously than Democrats take election security,” White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson told Fox News Digital. “It’s sad but true.”

“The SAVE America Act is a commonsense police, supported by the vast majority of Americans, that will secure our elections for generations to come. The only people opposed seem to be Democrats in Congress… I wonder why?” she added.

WATCH: MCCARTHY SAYS TRUMP WILL USE ‘EVERYTHING HE CAN’ TO FORCE SENATE ACTION ON SAVE AMERICA ACT

The social media post quickly caused an online feeding frenzy.

“PUT OLIVE GARDEN IN CHARGE OF OUR ELECTIONS!!!” one popular X account quipped.

“I hope you understand that this is extremely discriminatory towards minorities and married women,” one user said, parroting talking points that the political left has used in opposition of the SAVE Act.

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Another user also mockingly used the common parlance of the political left in response to Olive Garden’s strict policy.

“I’m sorry, but this sounds incredibly racist to me, a requirement ID and some sort of proof of being a passholder will negatively affect marginalized communities ability to access Olive Garden,” wrote the sarcastic user. “Do better Olive Garden.”

“Are you saying that if photo ID is not presented, it could lead to cheating the system?” another social media user asked.

“Good grief, Olive Garden is more secure than our elections,” said yet another.

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Since Republicans in the House of Representatives passed the SAVE Act in February, the bill has faced major obstruction by Democrats in the Senate, as the conservative lawmakers don’t have the 60 votes required to overcome a filibuster.

Earlier this week, SAVE Act language was attached to a State Department appropriations bill in a creative attempt to pass the law.

WASHINGTON — Democrats are making a growing effort to adopt a pragmatic focus as they campaign on affordability in the midterms, as some within the party push for moving away from ideological arguments.

Across the country, Democratic candidates are trying to win over voters by talking about real-life scenarios, framing other platform issues in economic terms and, strategists say, aiming to shift a perception that Democrats deal in the abstract.

They see an opening created by voters’ focus on the economy and their ability as the party not in power to leverage affordability as the key midterms issue as Trump’s economic approval remains low. Trump has dismissed the issue, calling affordability a “hoax” by Democrats while also promising economic improvements.

“There has been a learning process in being able to take what Trump and the Republicans are doing and make sure that [candidates] are coming back to the real-world economic implications of whatever that might be,” Democratic strategist Alex Jacquez, who served in the Biden White House. “That’s where maybe [Democrats] haven’t always, in the recent past, made the full connection all the way through.”

Now, “the moment is ripe,” he suggested, for the party to shift its image.

The Democrats’ concentration on affordability and the economy has defined their midterm messaging, playing off elevated inflation, the effects of Trump’s tariffs and high gas prices caused by the war in Iran. The party is attempting to capture enough swing voters to win a House majority in November, and some believe the Senate could also be within reach.

Polling shows pessimism about the economy has increased among all Americans and most believe the country is in an affordability crisis. Americans most frequently mention government leadership and economic issues as the country’s most important problems in Gallup polling.

Voters also increasingly disapprove of Trump’s handling of the economy, including working-class white voters who make up a key part of his base. In an NPR/PBS News/Marist Poll last month, Americans gave the president his lowest-ever approval rating on the economy at 33%.

Speaking in Pennsylvania on Thursday, Trump said of affordability: “That’s a fake word that they use. They caused the affordability problem. It’s called high prices.”

Rep. Adam Gray, a Democrat who represents a purple Central Valley district and is a member of the center-left Blue Dog Coalition in Congress, said he believes voters have grown frustrated by the failure of Washington lawmakers to pay attention to what the people want out from government.

He pointed to Central Valley growers whose business has been affected, he said, by the rising price of fuel and fertilizer, the squeeze on the labor market caused by immigration enforcement and changes to federal programs.

“How regular people experience politics, it’s not the kind of ideological debates we have in Washington,” Gray said. “It’s the experience of doing something, whether that’s shopping for groceries or going to the lake to go boating with your family and realizing the price of gas is through the roof or the road to the lake is in disrepair.”

At a time when Democrats have debated how to embrace a party identity beyond opposing Trump and intra-party fights between progressive and moderate candidates have drawn attention, some believe the “practical” tactic may offer one key to the party’s path forward.

In Texas, Democratic candidates are pointing to the impact of data centers on water supply or the consequences of the state’s abortion ban, said Matt Angle, director of Lone Star Project, a political research organization that works to help get Democrats elected.

“The fact that Corpus Christi is running out of water … [or] you have women who have died because they were denied abortion services,” Angle said. “It’s very important that those things not be talked about in ideological terms but in practical terms. I think Democrats are doing a better job of that than ever before.”

“Real life is happening on the ground,” Angle added. “I think Democrats see that.”

Republicans pursued a similar strategy successfully in 2024, and their attacks on Democrats for focusing on cultural issues may have been successful in pushing Democrats away from that messaging, said Republican strategist Brittany Martinez.

“They have made it clear that’s the direction in which they’re trying to go,” she said of Democrats. “I also think you have outliers of the party that sometimes suck all the oxygen out of the room and maybe derail that message.”

National Republican Congressional Committee spokesperson Christian Martinez said Democrats’ economic record, including in California under Gov. Gavin Newsom, demonstrates a failure to prioritize working families.

“It’s laughable that Democrats are trying to make kitchen-table issues their brand,” he said. “It only proves their political brand is broken, while Californians continue living every day with the receipts from Democrats’ failed agenda.”

Republican National Committee Chair Joe Gruters said Thursday at a summit convened by the Washington-based news outlet the Hill that he was confident the party would retain the House and Senate and projected optimism about the economy.

“He’s going to bat for the American worker every single day,” Gruters said of Trump. “He’s going to continue to do everything he can to get the nose of the economy in this country up and to get prices down.”

But as Trump appears to prioritize other issues, Martinez said, Republicans are facing their own uphill battle to win over swing voters.

“When the president has mocked affordability, said it’s not a crisis, I don’t think that helps [Republicans],” Martinez said. “Democrats have an opportunity to capitalize on that right now.”

Both moderate and progressive Democrats see the moment as a chance to define what the party stands for beyond opposing Trump, and both have seized on real-life arguments, though the approaches differ.

Progressives have long framed a spectrum of issues in economic terms, said Usamah Andrabi, spokesperson for the progressive caucus Justice Democrats.

“That has always been the progressive economic playbook, and I think it’s about time that the other wings of the Democratic Party catch up to us,” Andrabi said.

That also means, he said, not backing away from other issues, such as abortion, foreign wars and healthcare.

“It has always been the right that has sought to divide our communities on these so-called culture war issues,” Andrabi said. “Our vision forward should be one that includes everyone… That does not mean simply ignoring some people’s most urgent crises to focus on something else, because these are interconnected.”

Climate advocates, for instance, are “effectively connecting” climate to top midterm issues, including including gas and utility costs, AI data centers and the Iran war, said Jamie Henn, executive director of nonprofit communications lab Fossil Fuel Media, and have encouraged Democratic candidates to do the same.

“Climate, like many issues, doesn’t win itself on its own merits. It’s in the ways that you talk about it and connect it to kitchen-table issues,” Henn said. “Do it in the right way – it’s not a science lecture on global warming, it’s a story about how clean energy can reduce your bills.”

Still, getting more candidates to pick up those messages can be a steep climb, he said. Advocates in some spaces, including climate, have worried about their issues being sidelined.

“There are Democrats that could be threading this needle who aren’t,” Henn said. “We know the issues that climate needs to be connected to, but [politicians] need… to do a better job to clearly articulate the messages.”

President Donald Trump accused members of the U.S. intelligence community Thursday night of operating a “shadow government” to allegedly conceal evidence of China’s efforts to influence U.S. elections, seizing on newly declassified emails that he says reveal a bitter internal dispute about how Beijing’s activities should be characterized.

Trump did not claim China changed votes or altered election results. Instead, he argued Beijing engaged in an influence campaign aimed at shaping U.S. public perceptions.

Trump claimed intelligence officials kept significant reporting out of his presidential briefings and highlighted an email in which a National Security Agency analyst allegedly wrote, “We have deliberately massaged our one pending (presidential daily brief) to avoid any direct links to the election.”

TRUMP RELEASES DECLASSIFIED ELECTION INTELLIGENCE, SAYS IT REVEALS ‘SHOCKING VULNERABILITIES’

“Those responsible for sounding the alarm instead kept the information secret and hidden,” Trump claimed. “They did not disclose (it) to me as president or to anyone else.”

Trump used the disclosures to press Congress to pass the SAVE America Act, casting the newly released intelligence as evidence that lawmakers must tighten federal election rules before the midterms.

“Most importantly, addressing this crisis of election security demands that Congress must pass the SAVE America Act,” Trump said. “These reforms are urgently needed to stop the vulnerabilities that I’ve mentioned.”

The SAVE America Act passed the House in February but stalled in the Senate in March, when a 53–47 vote fell short of the 60 votes needed to advance it. Trump urged Americans to call their senators and representatives and demand its passage “without delay.”

REPUBLICAN SAYS TRUMP’S TOP ELECTION PRIORITY ‘DEAD’ IN SENATE AS GOP FRACTURES AHEAD OF MIDTERMS

The legislation would require documentary proof of citizenship to register for federal elections, photo identification to vote and ongoing state efforts to identify and remove noncitizens from voter rolls. Absentee voters would be required to submit a copy of an eligible photo ID when requesting a ballot and again when returning it.

Trump also called for eliminating mail-in voting except in cases of illness, disability, military deployment or travel. The current text of the SAVE America Act does not include that prohibition — it permits absentee voting subject to identification requirements.

Trump urged Americans to call their representatives and demand the bill’s passage “without delay.”

The newly released emails show that analysts disagreed over whether any alleged Chinese influence operations and intelligence collection should be explicitly linked to elections. After the NSA analyst described “massaging” the President’s Daily Brief, other intelligence officials questioned the decision, with one writing that “the mind boggles” and another calling the approach “highly irregular.”

One official alleged the intelligence community was “deliberately avoiding mentioning a connection to elections for non-substantive reasons,” according to a November 2020 email. That official sought to reconnect the intelligence to the election-security assessment and prevent what another described as an “analytic objectivity mistake.”

The documents, however, do not establish Trump’s broader allegation of a politically motivated conspiracy. Instead, they portray competing intelligence assessments over whether China’s actions amounted to an effort to influence the presidential contest or a broader campaign focused on U.S. policies, public opinion and issues important to Beijing.

Trump went further Thursday, claiming an FBI official wrote that she was running a “shadow government” to prevent the China intelligence from becoming public.

China denied any interference in U.S. elections.

“China has all along adhered to the principle of non-interference in other’s internal affairs,” Chinese embassy spokesperson  Liu Chang told Fox News Digital. “The U.S. election is an internal matter of the U.S. Its outcome is determined by the votes of the American people. China has never and will never interfere in the presidential elections of the U.S.” 

Trump is still expected to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping in September, a senior White House official told Fox News. 

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Trump directed the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Justice Department, FBI and CIA Thursday to investigate why the intelligence was withheld, fire anyone found to have participated in a cover-up and pursue criminal charges “if appropriate.”

Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., said in response to the address: “Americans heard the president once again repeat claims about our elections that have been investigated for years and repeatedly rejected by the Intelligence Community.”