Former U.S. President Barack Obama criticized President Donald Trump’s response to his recent remarks, arguing that the administration appeared more concerned about jokes concerning White House renovations than about his criticism of its economic policies and alleged corruption.
Obama made the comments during a political appearance as Democrats and Republicans campaigned ahead of the November 2026 U.S. midterm elections.
“The interesting thing about how the administration responded to the speech I gave the other day,” Obama told the audience, was what he said the administration chose not to address.
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“They did not dispute what I said about them being directly responsible for rising prices, they did not argue with that, they did not deny tariffs were contributing to higher costs for families, they didn’t say anything about that.”
Obama also criticized the administration had not responded to his accusations of corruption.
“I accused this administration based on the facts that they were engaging in unprecedented levels of corruption, they didn’t say anything about that.”
He then contrasted what he described as the administration’s lack of response to those allegations with its reaction to his remarks about Trump’s White House decor.
“The president wasn’t even mad about the Saddam Hussein comparison—that part didn’t bother him. But he was very upset about the Cheesecake Factory comments. He took great umbrage, he said I didn’t understand the work of the artisans in the White House.”
The exchange follows comments Obama made at a rally in Cleveland on Saturday, when he joked that Trump had “the White House looking like Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory,” according to Reuters.
Trump subsequently defended the White House’s appearance and criticized the condition in which he said Obama had left the property.
“The White House, I think, is the number one symbol of our country, and we can’t have a White House with broken windows, with broken stone that hasn’t been painted in 30 years,” Trump said during a campaign appearance in Ohio on Oct. 28.
The remarks came as both presidents took prominent roles in the closing week of the midterm election campaign.
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Neither is on the ballot, but their appearances have become part of the broader political contest over control of Congress.
All the 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 35 of the Senate’s 100 seats were being contested, where the nonpartisan analysts generally favored Democrats’ chances of winning a House majority, while the Senate race was considered much closer.
Obama’s comments framed the dispute over White House renovations as a contrast between the administration’s response to personal criticism and the substantive policy and corruption allegations raised by its critics.