Barack Obama mocked Donald Trump at a campaign rally in suburban Atlanta on Wednesday evening, saying the president was more upset about the cheesecake factory near me joke than inflation. He brought the line to Georgia while campaigning for Jon Ossoff and Keisha Lance Bottoms before next week’s election.
Obama told the crowd of 3,500 to 4,000 people at the Discovery Center of Clayton county, “They mobilized a whole-of-government response to that joke – not to inflation, but to that joke.” He added, “The White House even called the secretary of the treasury.”
Obama and Trump on White House renovations
The exchange centered on Obama’s joke that the White House changes made it look like Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory. Obama said, “The Saddam Hussein thing didn’t bother him. But he was very upset about the Cheesecake Factory,” then added, “Do you think I could have survived their childhood without going to the Cheesecake Factory?”
Obama also said, “These are not serious people,” and argued that Trump and the Republican party were focused on the wrong target. The remarks came as the political fight over the new ballroom on the site of the former East Wing of the White House kept the renovation criticism in play.
Georgia rally crowd of 4,000
The Atlanta-area rally fit into Obama’s broader election campaign tour in the final week of the US midterm election campaign. Jon Ossoff told the crowd, “Each day, Donald Trump digs the moral pit deeper,” and added, “If you’re involved in any of this, next year you’ll be raising your hand to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.” The crowd answered with chants of “Lock him up!”
Trump had answered Obama from Ohio on Wednesday, saying 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue was “more beautiful and in better shape” and that Obama “doesn’t understand cleanliness” or “broken, cracked stone and sidewalk.” Obama’s push in Georgia tied the White House renovation fight to inflation messaging in front of a large crowd, while Trump’s response showed that the joke had become a political target in its own right.
