Trump lashes out at Obama’s White House décor jab at Mississippi rally
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President Donald Trump angrily pushed back on former President Barack Obama’s criticism of the White House’s appearance during a Mississippi campaign event, turning the exchange into a defense of lavish renovations and a swipe at successful businesses.
President Donald Trump responded with visible irritation to former President Barack Obama’s comment that the White House décor looked like a Cheesecake Factory while addressing supporters at a rally in Mississippi on Monday. Trump dismissed Obama’s comparison as unfair and suggested the former president resented successful businesses rather than engaging seriously with the point.
"He said, 'This isn’t a Cheesecake Factory.' Can you believe it? Which is a very successful company. He doesn’t like successful companies," Trump told the crowd.
Trump then praised the renovation work carried out under his watch, portraying it as an elite restoration done by “the finest artisans in the world” and insisting that the building had been in “horrible shape” before his changes.
"I’ve taken care of the White House. I fixed it with the finest artisans in the world. We reskinned it. It was in horrible shape," Trump said.
Obama had previously remarked at an Ohio rally that the White House had been altered with gold accents, a new ballroom, a helicopter pad on the South Lawn, and a paved Rose Garden, ending with the quip that it looked like “Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory.”
Commentators on social media quickly seized on the exchange, while a Treasury Department official was reported to have dined at a Cheesecake Factory in Washington, D.C., later that day.