Former President Barack Obama has stepped up to campaign for Democratic candidates ahead of the November 3rd midterm elections. At first, I thought he hadn’t been on the campaign trail since 2024, but I double-checked – he campaigned for current Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger last year, and he did some other off-year campaign stops. Obama knows that his presence is powerful and he prefers to act as the Dems’ closer, to drive home the party’s message in the final weeks of a campaign cycle. He did just that in Michigan, where there’s a huge governor’s race and a senate race. At a stop in Detroit, Obama riffed on Donald Trump and Trump’s aesthetic, and it was seriously funny as hell. Obama said: “He seems very focused on home renovations. He should be on HGTV…what’s with the gold? … He’s got the White House looking like Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory.”
“He’s got the White House looking like Saddam Hussein opened up a Cheesecake Factory” — Obama https://t.co/3fH8IQP1MG
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 24, 2026
This clip just brightened my whole weekend – a reminder of what used to be, when we had a president who was cool, smart and tasteful. Like, I know “tasteful” isn’t a quantitative metric for politics, but you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone. And Obama is 100% correct: Trump’s aesthetic IS Saddam-Hussein-designs-a-Cheesecake-Factory. That’s exactly it. For those of you too young to remember, Saddam Hussein famously loved gold-plated everything too, he loved to decorate cheap, poorly-constructed palaces with gold leaf and gold columns.
Obviously, MAGA Republicans are now trying to turn Obama’s comment into their next culture war: Trump understands heartland values because he defends PDFiles, mocks abuse victims, says racist sh-t about Somalis, and he truly embraces the Saddam Hussein/Cheesecake Factory aesthetic. I’ll spell it out for those MAGA snowflakes: the joke is not Obama punching down on the Cheesecake Factory, it’s Obama saying Trump’s style is gaudy, tasteless and Saddam Hussein-esque.
Photos courtesy of Backgrid.
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- Detroit, MI Former United States President Barack Obama, speaks at a Democratic candidates rally at Cass Technical High School in Detroit, Michigan. Winning US Senate and US House races in the swing state of Michigan is central to Democratic hopes to wrest power in both chambers of the US Congress from the Republicans. Pictured: Barack Obama BACKGRID USA 24 OCTOBER 2026 BYLINE MUST READ: MediaPunch / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- Detroit, MI Former United States President Barack Obama, speaks at a Democratic candidates rally at Cass Technical High School in Detroit, Michigan. Winning US Senate and US House races in the swing state of Michigan is central to Democratic hopes to wrest power in both chambers of the US Congress from the Republicans. Pictured: Barack Obama BACKGRID USA 24 OCTOBER 2026 BYLINE MUST READ: MediaPunch / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- Detroit, MI Former United States President Barack Obama, speaks at a Democratic candidates rally at Cass Technical High School in Detroit, Michigan. Winning US Senate and US House races in the swing state of Michigan is central to Democratic hopes to wrest power in both chambers of the US Congress from the Republicans. Pictured: Barack Obama BACKGRID USA 24 OCTOBER 2026 BYLINE MUST READ: MediaPunch / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
I’m sure that Obama has actually eaten at a Cheesecake Factory, and Trump hasn’t.
Isn’t part of the joke that the Cheesecake Factory deliberately cultivates a gaudy, over the top style? Anyway, I’m glad the Democrats have all hands on deck for the last week of this campaign. MVP Harris will be the closer in Georgia next weekend. She’s been great on the road in Mississippi and New Hampshire.
The new White House, with all its gold embossing, stripper joint writing, enormous for the sake of being enormous, adding ballroom and other u needed structures then under utilising them, a heli pad right at the door so that your fat ass doesn’t have to walk…yeah this was Saddam Hussein’s palace which was equally gaudy paintings and statues of himself, naming things after himself and in his glory…omgee, they have become one person. Ironic because Americans hated Sadam and majority supported the Bush wars but in a circle of life Saddam Hussain has been reincarnated in Trump. There’s nothing different between them.🤯
O should have done more of this sooner. Good things are happening in Serbia and Brazil how about a post?
Just reading the headline made me cackle so loudly that I woke my cat up. He is so funny! And, it’s funny because it’s true.
We need more Obama standup!
Obama was being too nice. It looks like a Saddam’s brothel.
He said what the world is thinking !
Personally I tend to see more a “Ceausescu” vibe, but it’s a bit of a crossover.
This left me in tears for what we had and what we lost.
But I’m glad to see BO out on the trail rallying the vote.
I watched his whole speech. It was fire.
He’s hilarious and this is a joke that works brilliantly because the more you think about it the more you realise how much he hit the nail on the head.