Obama Says White House Answered a Joke, Not Inflation

Barack Obama told a Georgia crowd that the White House answered his joke instead of his argument.

The former president spoke Wednesday in Morrow, Georgia, about how officials reacted to remarks he made at a rally on Saturday. There, he compared the gold decorations in the White House to a Cheesecake Factory run by Saddam Hussein. In Morrow, Obama said the administration did not answer the substance of that speech. He said officials did not dispute his claim that they bear responsibility for rising prices, did not argue with his point about tariffs adding to family costs, and did not respond to his description of corruption in the administration. He also said President Donald Trump took no issue with the Saddam Hussein comparison. "But he was very upset about the Cheesecake Factory comment," Obama said. He added that the administration "mobilized a whole-of-government response to that joke, not to inflation, but to that joke."

Trump addressed the matter on Monday. "I've taken care of the White House," he said. "I fixed it with the finest artisans in the world. We re-skinned it; it was in horrible shape." That same day, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent visited a Cheesecake Factory and spoke to reporters there. Obama pointed to that visit at the Georgia rally. "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," he said.

Some conservatives said Obama's remarks sounded elitist. CNN's Scott Jennings wrote on X that Obama "has never been in a Cheesecake Factory" and is "undefeated at condescending to regular folks." Obama answered that at the rally, saying he spent years taking his daughters to the chain. "I lived at Chuck E. Cheese and California Pizza Kitchen and the Cheesecake Factory. That was my jam for about a decade," he said.

The White House did not immediately reply to a request for comment.