Obama tells a Georgia crowd ‘these are not serious people’ as he says the White House responded to a joke ‘not to inflation’
“I am old enough to remember when a president wearing a tan suit was a major national controversy.”
Former President Barack Obama addressed the backlash over his Cheesecake Factory joke at a Georgia rally on Wednesday, stating that the administration responded to a joke, “not to inflation, but to that joke.” According to The Hill, he added, “This is what I mean when I say these are not serious people.”
Obama appeared at the event to rally support for Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff, a Democrat, and Keisha Lance Bottoms, the party’s gubernatorial nominee. He argued that those behind the response “don’t have solutions to actual problems,” so they would rather have people “talking about the Cheesecake Factory.”
The joke came on Saturday at an event in Cleveland. Obama stated that President Donald Trump’s White House renovations left it “looking like Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory, it’s just gold everywhere,” a reference to the gold-decorated palaces in Iraq. He has aimed at the White House changes before, as when Obama mocked Trump’s ballroom focus at a rally in Norfolk, Virginia.
A decor joke that kept growing
Trump replied on Monday while traveling for the midterm campaign. He called Obama “a lousy president” and praised the company as “very successful.” Trump stated, “It’s not about money. It’s about seeing,” and claimed Obama does not see dirt, filth or broken ornaments on a building. The White House’s X account also posted a mock Cheesecake Factory menu listing administration accomplishments, WEAR reported. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent visited a Washington location of the chain on Monday and took a jab at Obama.
In Georgia, Obama pointed to Bessent’s appearance, stating he “never thought of” asking his own Treasury chief, Timothy Geithner, to do something similar. He also stated he had “heard the president was not happy” with the joke, then added that raising two daughters meant frequent trips to the chain. “That was my jam for about a decade,” he quipped.
Obama turned the topic to prices, stating that “a lot of folks can barely afford to go out to eat” and that the administration should be focused on that. He argued the administration “did not dispute” his claim that it is behind higher prices, a top concern for midterm voters. He also stated he was surprised Trump “wasn’t even mad about the Saddam Hussein comparison.”
Obama also recalled the uproar surrounding a tan suit from his second term. “I am old enough to remember when a president wearing a tan suit was a major national controversy,” he quipped. He also noted that he knew he “looked good in that suit.” Obama has weighed in on ballot fights before, including when Obama backed California’s Prop 50 last year.
The exchange comes days before Election Day on Nov. 3. Decision Desk HQ’s forecast gives Ossoff 89 percent odds of beating Republican Rep. Mike Collins in the Senate race. The governor’s race is a toss-up, with Bottoms narrowly favored over Republican Rick Jackson, a billionaire, in the contest to succeed Gov. Brian Kemp, who cannot run again.
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