Former US president Barack Obama mocked Donald Trump's "whole of government" response to his critique of his successor's gilded White House renovations as he rallied Democrats in the final week of the US midterm election campaign.
"These are not serious people," Obama said of Trump and the Republican party at a campaign rally in suburban Atlanta on Wednesday evening. "And we're all paying the price for their lack of seriousness."
Trump and his allies have repeatedly responded in recent days to Obama's suggestion at the weekend that the president's changes have left the White House "looking like Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory".
At a rally of his own on Wednesday in Ohio, Trump insisted that 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue was now "more beautiful and in better shape", and claimed Obama "doesn't understand cleanliness" or "broken, cracked stone and sidewalk".
Obama, for his part, seems unperturbed by such attacks. "They mobilized a whole of government response to that joke – not to inflation, but to that joke," he told the crowd on Wednesday. "The Saddam Hussein thing didn't bother him. But he was very upset about the Cheesecake Factory."
"The White House even called the secretary of the treasury," the former president continued, referring to how Scott Bessent dined at the chain earlier this week, and spoke to a reporter outside. "The guy who is trying to figure out how to lower inflation … they told him he should hold a press conference in front of the Cheesecake Factory."
Obama also rebuffed Republicans' accusations of snobbery for referencing the popular chain restaurant. "I am the father of two daughters," Obama said. "Do you think I could have survived their childhood without going to the Cheesecake Factory?"
But he turned that discussion to the problems of affordability for American voters, in contrast with the corruption of the presidency.
"We have never seen a president so intent on selling favors," Obama said. "The guy has made billions of dollars while in office. Understand that this has not been done in modern times."
Obama came to Georgia to support the campaigns of Senator Jon Ossoff, former Atlanta mayor and gubernatorial hopeful Keisha Lance Bottoms, and an array of down-ballot Democrats as part of his cross-country campaign tour before next week's election. Between 3,500 and 4,000 people filled the Discovery Center of Clayton county for the late election season stop, just south of Atlanta.
The construction of a new ballroom on the site of the former East Wing of the White House featured in the comments of many speakers at Wednesday's rally, including Ossoff.
"Each day, Donald Trump digs the moral pit deeper," Ossoff said, accusing the president of leading "the most corrupt administration of all time, and everybody knows it".
"If you're involved in any of this, next year you'll be raising your hand to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth," Ossoff said, in reference to Democrats pledging to impeach Trump if they take control of Congress next year.
The crowd chanted: "Lock him up!" in response.
Bottoms, meanwhile, contrasted her candidacy with that of her Republican opponent Rick Jackson, tying the billionaire healthcare executive to Trump and describing them as "two out-of-touch billionaires who want to keep getting rich on the backs of taxpayers".
Invoking the legacies of US Representative John Lewis and Coretta Scott King, Bottoms characterized her candidacy as transcending politics. "They may have the money, but they will never overtake our movement," she said.
Despite a broad wave of Democratic support buoying candidates across the country – and the eight- to 10-point polling lead Ossoff has on his Republican opponent, US Representative Mike Collins – Bottoms is statistically tied in polls with Jackson. If elected, Bottoms would break the state's Republican trifecta – where the GOP has controlled both chambers of the legislature and the governor's office – which began in 2004.
Rev Raphael Warnock, Georgia's other senator, warned of "spiritual wickedness in high places" while describing the effects of deep cuts to Medicaid and Snap nutrition support for children.
"This is about the character of the country," Warnock said. "This is about who we are and whether we are here for one another … I am concerned about the spiritual health of our country. There is brokenness, because only a broken nation could manage to elect Donald Trump twice."
Trump, who was campaigning in Ohio at the same time as the Georgia rally, has also been on a national rally blitz, holding near-daily events in the final days of the midterm campaign. Trump has made two appearances in as many weeks in Georgia, both in what would otherwise seem to be congressional districts that are safe territory for Republicans.