Republicans Tried to Turn the Cheesecake Factory Against Democrats. It Flopped.

In the waning days of the midterm election campaign, Republicans have finally stumbled on a closing message: defending the honor of the Cheesecake Factory.

Last week, Barack Obama made a viral crack about Donald Trump’s renovations: “He’s got the White House looking like Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory.” Conservatives feigned outrage on behalf of the humble American volk for whom the Cheesecake Factory is the height of sophistication. Fox Business interviewed the centimillionaire Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, after lunch at the restaurant; he sniffed, “I would tell the Martha’s Vineyard set to give it a try.” (His Massachusetts beach house, which he sold for a couple of million dollars in 2012, was in Provincetown.)........

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