US midterm elections: Obama slams Trump over Iran war, White House renovation, ‘Saddam opened a Cheesecake Factory’

As the US midterm elections draw closer, former President Barack Obama has hit the campaign trail with a scathing attack on President Donald Trump, saying he has “got the White House looking like Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory”.

Obama made these remarks at a rally in Cleveland, Ohio, on Saturday (local time) as he questioned Trump’s ongoing renovation choices for the White House. Ridiculing his aesthetic additions to the executive mansion, Obama said, “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but he seems very focused on home renovations. He should be on HGTV. The guy’s building a ballroom that’s bigger than the White House. Paved over the Rose Garden, put a helicopter pad on the South Lawn, and there’s gold everywhere! What’s up with the gold? Everything—more gold!”

The rally was Obama’s first ahead of the midterms this year. There, he showed support for former Senator Sherrod Brown, who is challenging Republican incumbent Jon Husted for a Senate seat, and Amy Acton, who faces Republican Vivek Ramaswamy in Ohio’s gubernatorial race.

Beyond the renovations, Obama criticised the Trump administration over the Iran war and high consumer prices, saying, “This election is our last best chance to at least rein in some of the foolishness of this administration.”

The midterm elections, scheduled for 3 November, will be a major test for Trump’s Republican Party as it seeks to retain control of both houses of Congress.

Obama targets Trump over corruption, high prices and Iran war

The former president, who addressed two rallies on Saturday, one in Ohio and the other in Michigan, accused the Trump administration of corruption and cruelty and said, “After two years of chaos and cruelty and corruption and incompetence, the likes of which we have not seen in the modern era, you get a chance to say, ‘enough is enough.'”

Turning to the economy, Obama, who has recently joined the Democrats in going on offense, also told voters that he sympathised with those who rejected Democrats during the 2024 elections over economic and inflation concerns following the COVID-19 pandemic. He, however, added that the incumbent US President is the only person to be blamed for the current state of the economy. “If you thought everything was too expensive before ‘you know who’,” he continued, referring to Trump, “everything is more expensive now,” BBC reported.

Apart from Trump, Obama also targeted Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and said, “Hundreds of Americans have been wounded. We have run down our stock of missiles, and Iran now has veto power over the Strait of Hormuz. Meanwhile, you’ve got the defense secretary who’s squarely focused on important matters like the jawlines and testosterone levels of our troops.”

Turning to Ohio’s gubernatorial race, he further launched a sharp attack against Republican candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, who released a campaign ad last week featuring his opponent Amy Acton’s estranged mother, who accused Acton of being a liar. While the ad didn’t mention that the woman’s husband was charged with raping Amy when she was a child, the former US President held nothing back and said, “In recent days, we’ve seen there is no line he will not cross. No low he will not sink to try to get in the limelight.”

Obama’s sharp criticism of Trump and the Republicans comes at a time when the US President is grappling with the consequences of his war in Iran, which has sent gas prices soaring for Americans, adding to concerns over the cost of living ahead of the midterm elections.