- Obama joked the White House looks like a Cheesecake Factory, triggering a viral political feud with memes, insults, and Trump responses.
- Trump defended lavish renovations, has up to $50,000 in Cheesecake Factory stock, and his White House account mocked Obama with a doctored menu.
- The spat turned into a midterms issue over priorities and inflation, even as Cheesecake Factory refuses to comment.
You probably weren't expecting the Cheesecake Factory to become a political talking point just days before the midterms, but here we are.
What started as a joke from former President Barack Obama about President Trump's gold-covered White House interiors has turned into a full-blown political feud, complete with insults and social media memes. And while the whole thing might seem ridiculous, there's a bigger debate underneath it about how Trump is spending his time — and taxpayer money — as Americans continue to struggle with the cost of living.
Why are Trump and Obama fighting over The Cheesecake Factory?
During a campaign stop in Ohio on Saturday, Obama quipped that Trump has the White House “looking like Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory; it’s just gold everywhere.”
Obama was referring to Trump's extensive White House and nearby renovations, which could cost at least $900 million, with taxpayers expected to cover the majority of the bill, according to The Washington Post. The projects include updates to the Rose Garden and a new granite helipad. The comparison to former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein wasn't entirely random, either: His lavish palaces were famously decked out in gold.
And in an unexpected twist, Trump has also owned stock in the restaurant chain. According to The Daily Beast, financial disclosures show he purchased up to $175,000 worth of Cheesecake Factory shares in 2025 and still held as much as $50,000 in stock at the end of that year. The White House says his investments are independently managed.
Obama’s joke appeared to strike a nerve with Trump, who, according to The New York Times, spent more than half of a six-minute exchange with reporters responding to Obama's remarks ahead of a campaign stop in Mississippi on Monday. “We have to explain to Obama that the White House is a symbol of America and it has to be maintained properly,” Trump said, before referring to his predecessor as a “lousy president.”
The White House's account on X also joined in, posting a doctored Cheesecake Factory menu touting Trump administration policies, including items labeled “The Border Security Special” and “The American Energy Feast.”
Even Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent got involved, stopping by a Cheesecake Factory in Washington, D.C., for lunch on Monday. Afterward, he took a swipe at Obama's presidential center in Chicago, saying it looked like “Darth Vader's tomb.”
“I had a great meal, always have a great meal, and I would tell the Martha's Vineyard set to give it a try,” Bessent told reporters, referring to the upscale Massachusetts island where the Obamas own a home.
For its part, The Cheesecake Factory has stayed out of the political drama, declining requests for comment from multiple outlets.
What does any of this have to do with the midterms?
It might seem like a silly food fight, but it's become yet another political flashpoint just days before a major election. Republicans are accusing Obama of looking down on everyday Americans, while Democrats argue that Trump is more focused on defending his White House renovations than addressing rising prices.
Conservative podcaster Clay Travis, for one, claimed Obama was “out of touch” for making the comparison.
Pod Save America host and former Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau pushed back, writing on X, “Do you honestly think that Americans who believe the Cheesecake Factory is a high-end place to eat reserved for special occasions also think that the restaurant's design is so beautiful that the president should copy it for the White House?”
Even the man responsible for that iconic gaudy aesthetic seemed ready to move on. “I’m not emotionally attached to the Cheesecake Factory design, but don’t we have bigger issues in the country?” designer Rick McCormack said in an interview with The New York Times on Tuesday.
But both sides are trying to make the exchange about something bigger than restaurant decor. A recent AP-NORC poll found that 84 percent of voters consider the cost of living one of the most important issues in deciding how to cast their ballots.
Obama drove that point home Wednesday while campaigning in Georgia for Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff and gubernatorial candidate Keisha Lance Bottoms.
“They mobilized a whole-of-government response to that joke, not to inflation, but to that joke!” he told the crowd, mocking the administration's reaction and Bessent's decision to weigh in.
“This is what I mean when I say these are not serious people,” Obama continued. “They don’t have solutions to actual problems, so they’d rather have the media and you talking about The Cheesecake Factory.”
