Barack Obama came to Atlanta to help Georgia Democrats close strong, and he brought jokes with him. Headlining the United for Georgia Rally on Wednesday night for U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff and gubernatorial nominee Keisha Lance Bottoms, the former president went after President Donald Trump on rising prices and corruption, and on the Cheesecake Factory controversy that has taken over the final stretch of the midterms.
The joke that started it all came days earlier. At a Saturday rally in Cleveland, Obama mocked Trump’s gold-heavy White House renovations, saying he has “got the White House looking like Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory.”
Trump’s allies quickly rushed to defend the restaurant chain, accusing Obama of being elitist. In Atlanta, Obama picked the story right back up, saying Trump was “literally doing arts and crafts while we are fighting a war and trying to deal with out-of-control prices.”
Man, oh man. Obama just roasted Trump and some of his cabinet members for minutes in Atlanta. Stop what you’re doing and watch this. There is no way Trump is sleeping tonight. https://t.co/akqwRxIi4m
— CALL TO ACTIVISM (@CalltoActivism) October 29, 2026
He also made it clear he has nothing against the Cheesecake Factory. “Let me get this on the record. I am the father of two daughters,” he said. “Do you think I could have survived their childhood without going to the Cheesecake Factory? I lived at Chuck E. Cheese and California Pizza Kitchen and the Cheesecake Factory. That was my jam for about a decade.”
Then he turned to the point he says matters most. “The real problem is prices have gotten so high, a lot of folks can barely afford to go out to eat.”
What struck Obama most was what the administration didn’t push back on. He said the White House never disputed his claims that it is responsible for rising prices or that tariffs are driving up costs for families, and never answered his accusation of “unprecedented levels of corruption.” “The president wasn’t even mad about the Saddam Hussein comparison. That part didn’t bother him,” Obama said. “But he was very upset about the Cheesecake Factory comments.”
The response, he said, was a “whole of government” effort aimed at a joke instead of inflation. That included Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who went to a Cheesecake Factory near the Treasury Building in Washington on Monday and talked to reporters outside about his order. Bessent said he always gets the French Dip Cheeseburger, recommended the Cheeseburger Spring Rolls on social media, and took a shot at Obama’s presidential library, calling it “the museum that looks like Darth Vader’s tomb.” Obama wasn’t impressed. “This is the man who is in charge of the economy,” he said. “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.”
Obama then compared it to his own time in the White House, when he took office in the middle of a major financial crisis. “I never called my Treasury Secretary, Tim Geithner, and said, ‘Man, you got to go to Arby’s, order roast beef,’” he joked. “No cheese, though. That may look elitist.”
Trump has fired back at Obama throughout the week, calling him “a grossly incompetent president.” Republicans have also been campaigning hard in Georgia. Trump rallied in Dalton earlier this month alongside Senate nominee Rep. Mike Collins and gubernatorial nominee Rick Jackson, and he returned to the state for a rally in Macon.
The stakes in Georgia are high. Ossoff is defending the only Democratic Senate seat on the ballot this year in a state Trump won in 2024, and Bottoms is in a tight race with Jackson to succeed term-limited Gov. Brian Kemp. If she wins, she would become the first Black woman ever elected governor of a U.S. state. Early in-person voting in Georgia ends Friday, October 30, ahead of Election Day on Tuesday, November 3.
Photo Credit: Instagram – BarackObama
