Barack Obama doubled down on his criticism of Donald Trump, suggesting the president was not a “serious” person and pointing to his reaction to the Cheesecake Factory jab as proof.
During a rally for Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff and gubernatorial candidate Keisha Lance Bottoms in Morrow, Ga., the former president addressed the outcry over his dig at Trump’s renovation projects, in which he claimed the current president had the “White House looking like Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory.”
“I mean, it’s all crazy, but this was the really crazy part, they mobilized a whole of government response to that joke,” Obama told rally attendees. “Not to inflation, but to that joke. The White House even called the Secretary of the Treasury. This is the man who is in charge of the economy, the person who’s supposed to be figuring out how to make your life more affordable, the guy who’s supposed to be figuring out how to lower inflation and and reduce interest rates. They told him he should hold a press conference in front of the Cheesecake Factory.”
He added: “This really happened, and the Treasury Secretary, he happens to be a former hedge fund manager worth half a billion dollars, and he was out there in front of the Cheesecake Factory explaining how he ordered the delicious French cheeseburger instead of the egg rolls.”
Obama admitted he was surprised by the response, noting it was “not something I ever thought of.”
“Like, I inherited this major financial crisis,” Obama said. “I never called my Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and said, ‘Man, you got to go to Arby’s. Order roast beef. No cheese, though. That may look elitist.’”
The former president then shared a direct message to both rally attendees and the press. “This is what I mean when I say these are not serious people,” he ripped. “They don’t have solutions to actual problems, so they’d rather have the media and you talking about the Cheesecake Factory.”
“That’s the game they’ve been playing for the last two years,” he continued. “Just keep throwing distractions out there, attacks, fabrications, phony outrage and hope that you won’t notice that your bills are higher and your life is tougher.”
A representative for the White House did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.
Obama’s response followed days of criticism from both the White House and conservative media. As for Trump, he told press on Monday, “For you to say it’s a Cheesecake Factory, that just shows why you were a lousy president.”
He added: “Guys like Obama, they would pass the front door, they would see the broken masonry… He doesn’t notice dirt and filth where the walls haven’t been cleaned for years.”
Though, Obama wasn’t the only prominent Democrat to call out Trump for his White House renovation projects. Specifically, former President Bill Clinton found himself going viral on Saturday after claiming Trump made the Rose Garden “[look] like the entrance to Liberace’s bathroom.”
