Cheesecake Factory Dispute Continues as Obama Renews Attack on White House Renovations – Former President Barack Obama renewed his attack on President Donald Trump’s White House renovations on Wednesday, accusing the administration of focusing more on a joke about its decorating choices than on Americans’ rising costs.
Speaking in Morrow, Georgia, Obama ridiculed the response to his comparison of Trump’s gold-heavy White House makeover to a Cheesecake Factory opened by Saddam Hussein.
President Donald J. Trump boards Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House, Friday, May 8, 2026, en route Trump National Golf Club Washington D.C. in Sterling, Virginia. (Official White House Photo by Patrick B. Ruddy).
President Donald J. Trump makes an announcement on American nuclear innovation, Friday, July 24, 2026, in the Oval Office. (Official White House Photo by Molly Riley)
White House officials and conservative commentators criticized the former president earlier in the week.
Saddam and a Cheesecake Factory
Last weekend at a rally in Ohio, a battleground state, Obama drew attention to Trump’s ongoing White House renovations. The former Democratic president accused the incumbent Republican president of failing to prioritize issues that matter to American voters.
“I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but he seems very focused on home renovations,” Obama said on Saturday, October 24. “The guy is building a ballroom that’s bigger than the White House; he’s paved over the Rose Garden [and] put a helicopter pad on the South Lawn.”
“And there’s gold everywhere,” Obama added. “What’s up with the gold? He’s got the White House looking like Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory… just gold everywhere.”
The former president added that Trump was “clearly not focused on lowering prices” for Americans.
Republicans Respond
Trump did not directly address Obama’s remark in a Truth Social post hours after the Democrat’s rally. He described his first-term predecessor as a “grossly incompetent” commander-in-chief, accusing him of “pay[ing] off Iran” with billions of dollars and giving Tehran “a road to a nuclear weapon.”
The official White House account on X waded in Monday afternoon, sharing a digitally altered Cheesecake Factory menu amended with Trump’s achievements as president. “The only thing bigger than the menu is the list of President Trump’s accomplishments,” the account wrote.
The following day, the White House hosted an hours-long YouTube livestream titled “Lo-fi Beats to Dismantle DEI To,” which featured a split-screen of what the administration described as the president’s efforts to eradicate diversity policies and an AI-generated cartoon of Trump waving to a crowd in front of a Cheesecake Factory. At a rally in Mississippi, the president also described the Cheesecake Factory as a “very successful company” and defended the need for the renovations.
“The White House represents our country, and that has to be pristine,” Trump said on Monday at a rally to support Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith. “I would try and explain that to a guy like Obama, but he wouldn’t understand. He doesn’t understand the White House has to be clean, pristine, beautiful. It can’t have cracks in the column.”
President Donald Trump delivers remarks at a business session with the nation’s governors, Friday, February 21, 2025, in the State Dining Room of the White House. (Official White House Photo by Harrison Koeppel)
Trump alluded to his previous career in real estate, insisting that he spent “very little time” redesigning the White House and that it “relaxes” him.
“I do it very good,” Trump added. “I’m really good in real estate and fixing things. I fix things very good, very beautifully, and I always build beautiful and inexpensive, which is a good combination if you can do it.”
Bessent Joins the Dispute
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent joined in the dispute on Monday in an appearance where he ate at a Cheesecake Factory.
He called Obama the “man who built the museum that looks like Darth Vader’s tomb,” in reference to the Obama Presidential Center that opened in Chicago earlier this year.
Obama Strikes Back
At a rally in Georgia on Wednesday, Obama addressed the Republican response.
“They mobilized a whole-of-government response to that joke. Not to inflation, but to that joke,” Obama told supporters. “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 reduce interest rates. They told him he should hold a press conference in front of the Cheesecake Factory.”
Most Americans agree with Obama’s criticism, according to an ABC News/Washington Post poll released earlier this month. In the survey, 59% of U.S. adults said President Trump was spending “too much” time on his renovation projects at the White House.
That compares with 27% who said he is spending the right amount of time on the matter, and 11% who said he isn’t spending enough time on the issue.
About the Author: Shay Bottomley
Shay Bottomley is a British journalist. He has written for the Western Standard, Business Insider, Maidenhead Advertiser, Slough Express, Windsor Express, Berkshire Live and Southend Echo.
