THE DAILY BS: HOW MUCH CAN YOU HANDLE?
SPARE ME THE BS (I’ve got things to do).
- Barack Obama mocked Trump’s White House renovations by comparing the décor to a Cheesecake Factory opened by Saddam Hussein.
- Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent visited an actual Cheesecake Factory Monday and compared Obama’s presidential center to ‘Darth Vader’s tomb.’
- Trump defended his renovations during a Mississippi rally while Bessent suggested Obama’s Martha’s Vineyard crowd should try the restaurant.
LAY IT ON ME (I’ve got time).
Barack Obama tried to roast Donald Trump’s decorating taste. Instead, he started a political food fight involving the Treasury secretary, an American restaurant chain and Darth Vader.
And just like that, the former president’s campaign appearance turned into an episode of HGTV: Washington Edition.
The trouble started Saturday when Obama appeared at a Democratic rally in Ohio and decided to critique Trump’s extensive White House renovations.
“He’s got the White House looking like Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory,” Obama cracked.
There you have it. The former leader of the free world invoking an Iraqi dictator to deliver an architectural review of the White House.
Obama’s broader point was that Trump seemed more concerned with redecorating than Americans’ financial troubles. But by Monday, the conversation had gone in a direction he probably hadn’t anticipated.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent showed up at an actual Cheesecake Factory in Washington, D.C., where a Fox Business reporter interviewed him.
Rather than defend Trump’s gold trim, Bessent turned to Obama’s presidential center in Chicago. “This is the man who built the, uh, museum that looks like Darth Vader’s tomb,” he said.
Well, that’s one way to answer a decorating critique. Obama compares Trump’s White House to an oversized restaurant; Bessent compares Obama’s presidential monument to the final resting place of a galactic supervillain.
It’s a wonder Architectural Digest hasn’t dispatched diplomatic negotiators.
Bessent praised the meal he had enjoyed, then suggested: “I would tell the Martha’s Vineyard set to give it a try.”
Now we’re getting to the political meat of the cheesecake. Bessent’s suggestion was that Obama’s remark said something about his attitude toward popular American restaurants.
Conservative commentators accused Obama of making a middle-class dining destination the punchline; others argued he was criticizing the décor, not the restaurant’s customers.
Meanwhile Trump defended the White House renovations Monday at a rally in Corinth, Mississippi, and spoke favorably about Cheesecake Factory as a successful business.
So two presidents are arguing about interior decorating while the Treasury secretary conducts restaurant reviews on a sidewalk.
DBS WIRE SOURCES (I’ve got all day).
- Axios — Cheesecake Factory becomes political controversy
- Washington Post — Trump responds to Obama’s joke
- Daily Beast — Bessent at Cheesecake Factory
