Former President Barack Obama on Wednesday roasted President Donald Trump’s response to a recent jab he made regarding the latter’s gaudy White House decor.
During a rally on Saturday, Obama suggested that Trump’s gold embellishments on the building had made it look like “Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory,” prompting a multi-day meltdown from the White House and other Republicans.
At a rally in Morrow, Georgia, on Wednesday, Obama called out the disproportionate nature of their reaction.
“That was the interesting thing about how the administration responded to the speech I gave the other day,” Obama said. “They did not dispute what I said about them being directly responsible for rising prices. They did not argue with that. They did not deny tariffs were contributing to higher costs for families. They didn’t say anything about that. I accused this administration, based on the facts, that they were engaging in unprecedented levels of corruption. They didn’t say anything about that.”
“The president wasn’t even mad about the Saddam Hussein comparison. That part didn’t bother him. But he was very upset about the Cheesecake Factory comment,” Obama continued. “He took great umbrage. He said I didn’t understand the work of the artisans in the White House. ...They mobilized a whole-of-government response to that joke – not to inflation, but to that joke.”
Trump did, in fact, appear to take offense to Obama’s comments, lashing out at the former president on Monday.
“I’ve taken care of the White House,” Trump said. “I fixed it with the finest artisans in the world. We re-skinned it; it was in horrible shape.” That same day, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent paid a visit to the establishment and praised it to reporters.
“The guy who’s supposed to be figuring out how to lower inflation. And reduce interest rates. They told him he should hold a press conference in front of the Cheesecake Factory,” Obama quipped.
Other conservative commentators also criticized Obama’s remarks, and claimed that they reeked of elitism. “Has never been in a Cheesecake Factory. Undefeated at condescending to regular folks,” CNN host Scott Jennings wrote on X.
Obama cleared up that claim on Wednesday as well, noting that he was a longtime patron of the popular eatery along with his two daughters.
“I lived at Chuck E. Cheese and California Pizza Kitchen and the Cheesecake Factory. That was my jam for about a decade,” Obama said.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.