Former President Barack Obama’s quip about President Donald Trump’s gilded White House has turned into a full-blown midterm food fight — and the restaurant chain caught in the middle just posted one of the best quarters in its history.
“He makes the White House look like Saddam Hussein opened a cheesecake factory,” Obama told the public audience in Cleveland on Saturday. Over the next three days, Trump, the official White House X-account, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent fought back; the channel’s longtime designer weighed in; and the Cheesecake Factory reported record quarterly revenue.
Obama was in Ohio to campaign for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Amy Acton, who is facing Republican Vivek Ramaswamy, and former Sen. Sherrod Brown, who is trying to unseat Republican Sen. Jon Husted, ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm elections. He spent much of his speech hammering the administration on the war with Iran and the rising cost of living before turning to Trump’s aesthetic choices on Pennsylvania Avenue.
“He seems very focused on renovating the house. He should be on HGTV. This guy is building a ballroom bigger than the White House. He paved the Rose Garden, put a helicopter pad on the South Lawn, and there’s gold everywhere. What’s up with the gold? Everything, more gold,” Obama said before delivering the punchline.
The ballroom, which stands where the East Wing stood until its demolition last October, is funded largely by private donors, including Apple, Amazon, Google, Meta and Lockheed Martin, as well as Fortune reported. Trump estimated the cost of the project at $400 million, double the original estimate, while a contractor’s internal estimate reviewed by the Washington Post put it at $600 million.
Trump and his administration pile on
Trump responded Monday. “The fact that you say it’s a Cheesecake Factory just shows why you were a bad president,” he told reporters at Joint Base Andrews before flying off to a campaign stop in Mississippi. “Guys like Obama don’t see it. You don’t see the dirt. He doesn’t see the dirt. He doesn’t see the broken ornaments on a building.”
At a rally in Corinth, Mississippi, that night, Trump defended the chain, calling it a successful business and saying Obama “doesn’t like successful businesses.” He also called the renovation expenses “peanuts.”
The official White House X account has joined a Cheesecake Factory mock menu touting the administration’s policies, with articles like “The Border Security Special” and “The American Energy Feast.” “Since we’re talking about The Cheesecake Factory, the only thing above the menu is President Trump’s list of accomplishments,” the post read. White House spokesman Davis Ingle said The United States today that “no other president has done more to beautify the interior of our nation than President Trump.”
Bessent went further by having lunch Monday at a Cheesecake Factory near the White House. Afterward, he told a Fox Business reporter, “This is the man who built the museum (that) looks like Darth Vader’s tomb,” an apparent reference to the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago.
Online, Trump supporters and fans of the network called Obama’s comment snobbish and elitist. “Coastal elites hate Americana,” writer Evan Barker posted on
Obama’s defenders: the channel is notoriously exaggerated
Others argued that the negative reaction had been irrelevant. MS NOW’s Joe Scarborough called the Republican response “stupid” and hypocritical given Trump’s rhetoric. “It’s embarrassing,” he said.
Democratic political consultant Alex Jacquez said the Cheesecake Factory, “an establishment I love,” is “so gaudy and over-the-top that the designer regularly gives interviews about it.” He shared a screenshot of a 2017 Eater article in which the chain’s longtime designer Rick McCormack said, “If I tried to describe to you what it looked like, you’d probably think it was one of the most horrible places around.” »
“Pod Save America” host Jon Favreau made a similar point, wondering whether Americans who see the chain as a special occasion splurge also think “the restaurant’s design is so beautiful the president should copy it for the White House.”
McCormack, the chain’s former vice president of design, has now weighed in, and he’s not siding with Obama. He told CNN that the restaurants looked nothing like the Trump White House and that he found the comparison “a little sad” given the challenges the country faces, calling it “political pettiness.”
Decor aside, the Americans continue to show up
Whatever voters think of the setting, they continue to fill the voting booths. The company reported Tuesday that its third-quarter revenue rose 14% to a record $1.03 billion, up from $907.2 million a year earlier. Cheesecake Factory restaurant comparable sales jumped 15.2% and adjusted earnings of $1.02 per share beat Wall Street forecasts. The company opened six restaurants during the quarter and plans to open up to 26 this year.
“The Cheesecake Factory has long enjoyed enormous brand affinity across generations, and its ability to attract younger customers reinforces the enduring appeal and relevance of our namesake concept,” Chairman and CEO David Overton said in the release, who credited “significant engagement on social media” for some of the sales growth.
These results continue a remarkable run for a casual dining chain at a time when many restaurants are struggling. As Fortune As the report reported, tableside chains like Cheesecake Factory and Chili’s have won over diners as fast food prices climb. The stock has more than doubled this year and hit an all-time high of $118.63 earlier this month. The company is also a must on Fortunefrom the 100 Best Companies to Work For list, where it has appeared for 13 consecutive years.
Shares rose about 1.6% to $110.13 on Monday, the first trading day after Obama’s remark, then fell 1.5% to $108.47 on Tuesday before the post-bell results were released. They dropped further after hours.
The Cheesecake Factory has not publicly commented on Obama’s remark, and the topic was not raised during the company’s earnings conference call. The company did not respond to Fortunerequest for comment.
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