Obama Says Cheesecake Factory Was His Jam as Restaurant Joke Turns Into Proxy Fight

Obama Says Cheesecake Factory Was His Jam as Restaurant Joke Turns Into Proxy Fight

A Cleveland punchline about gold decor goes viral

On Oct. 24, former President Barack Obama campaigned in Cleveland for Democratic Senate candidate Sherrod Brown and gubernatorial candidate Amy Acton and mocked President Donald Trump's White House renovations. He listed the ballroom project, Rose Garden work and South Lawn helipad, then asked what was behind all the gold. His punchline, that Trump had the White House looking like Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory, drew laughter and quickly spread online, setting off days of partisan sparring.

Bessent orders lunch and fires back at elitism charge

On Oct. 26, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent ate lunch at a Cheesecake Factory near the White House and answered Obama on camera. He called Obama the man who built a museum that looks like Darth Vader's tomb, an apparent jab at the Obama Presidential Center, and told the Martha's Vineyard set to give the chain a try. He said he ordered what he always has, the French Dip Cheeseburger, priced at $22.95 at the downtown location. Conservative commentators joined in, accusing Obama of condescending to regular diners.

Obama says family dinners made the chain a decade-long favorite

On Oct. 28, Obama answered at a rally outside Atlanta for Sen. Jon Ossoff and gubernatorial candidate Keisha Lance Bottoms, saying he had lived at places like Chuck E. Cheese, California Pizza Kitchen and The Cheesecake Factory when his daughters were young. That was his jam for about a decade, he said. He argued the joke was about gilded decor and unanswered allegations about corruption and tariff-driven costs, not contempt for the restaurant or its customers.

White House pushback becomes Obama's exhibit A on priorities

Obama said Trump was not angered by the Saddam Hussein comparison but took great umbrage at the Cheesecake Factory line, mobilizing a whole-of-government response to the joke rather than to inflation. Trump, meanwhile, said the White House was in its best shape since 1792 and called Obama a lousy president for making the comparison. Obama countered that the administration did not dispute his claims on corruption, tariffs or costs, and preferred to keep the press talking about a restaurant while bills rose.

The chain posts blockbuster sales while the feud simmers

The Cheesecake Factory emerged as an unlikely beneficiary. It reported third-quarter revenue of $1,033.4 million, up from $907.2 million a year earlier, its second straight record quarter, with comparable restaurant sales up 15.2 percent. Its stock is up about 120 percent this year. The chain's longtime designer told CNN the restaurants look nothing like Trump's White House and called the comparison petty. No policy has followed the exchange, and the episode remains a midterm messaging fight.