‘Like Saddam opened a Cheesecake Factory’: was Obama’s joke about Trump’s interior design ‘elitist’?
Summary
Barack Obama joked at an Ohio campaign rally that Donald Trump’s White House renovations looked like “Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory,” referring to the gold-heavy decor. Trump defended the renovations, while some conservative figures and media outlets accused Obama of looking down on an affordable restaurant chain; the article notes that the joke’s main target was Trump’s style, not the restaurant.Key Facts
- Obama made the joke while campaigning in Ohio for Democratic Senate candidate Sherrod Brown.
- Obama compared Trump’s White House decor to the gold-filled palaces of Saddam Hussein and a Cheesecake Factory.
- Trump said the renovations were carried out by skilled artisans and defended the time he spends addressing the White House’s condition.
- Some conservative commentators described Obama’s joke as elitist or as an insult to Cheesecake Factory customers.
- Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said he regularly eats at the chain and named his usual order as a French Dip Cheeseburger.
- The Cheesecake Factory began in Beverly Hills in 1978 and now has hundreds of locations in the United States and Canada.
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