Obama mocked Trump’s gold White House as a Cheesecake Factory. The chain just posted a record quarter

Former President Barack Obama’s one-liner about President Donald Trump’s gilded White House has turned into a full-blown midterm food fight—and the restaurant chain caught in the middle just posted one of the best quarters in its history.

“He’s got the White House looking like Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory,” Obama told a crowd at the Cleveland Public Auditorium on Saturday. In the three days since, Trump, the White House’s official X account, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent have fired back; the chain’s longtime designer has weighed in; and the Cheesecake Factory has reported record quarterly revenue.

Obama was in Ohio campaigning for Democratic gubernatorial nominee Amy Acton, who faces Republican Vivek Ramaswamy, and former Sen. Sherrod Brown, who is trying to unseat Republican Sen. Jon Husted, ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm elections. He spent much of the speech hammering the administration over the war with Iran and the rising cost of living before turning to Trump’s aesthetic choices on Pennsylvania Avenue.

“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. He’s 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,” Obama said before delivering the punchline.

The ballroom, rising where the East Wing stood until its demolition last October, is being funded largely by private donors, including Apple, Amazon, Google, Meta, and Lockheed Martin, as Fortune has reported. Trump has put the project’s cost at up to $400 million, double the initial estimate,........

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