Former President Barack Obama on Saturday attacked President Trump’s administration in searing and mocking terms, saying it was defined by “incompetence the likes of which we have not seen in modern times.”
Appearing in Cleveland at his first campaign rally of the midterm elections, Mr. Obama delivered his most forceful attack on Mr. Trump in recent memory. He also criticized a campaign ad from the Republican nominee for Ohio governor, Vivek Ramaswamy, saying it exemplified a coarsening of American politics.
Mr. Obama, who has been selective about publicly criticizing Mr. Trump, condemned his Republican successor’s stewardship of the country in terms that were personal and pointed. He said Mr. Trump’s second term had amounted to “two years of chaos and cruelty and corruption,” argued that top administration officials were “not serious people” and said Mr. Trump had led the country into an economically painful war in Iran “that nobody asked for.”
“As a former president, I can tell you sometimes factors beyond a president’s control end up foiling the best-laid plans,” Mr. Obama said. But, he added: “That is not the case here. In this case, this administration’s actions are directly responsible for rising costs.”
Mr. Obama, describing Mr. Trump as “you know who” or “this guy in the White House,” said America had never had a president “excel so wildly at just straight-up grifting.” And he cast Mr. Trump as disconnected from Americans’ needs, engrossed instead by White House renovation projects.
“He should be on HGTV,” Mr. Obama said, ridiculing Mr. Trump’s focus on applying gold trimmings to the White House. “He’s got the White House looking like Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory. Just gold everywhere.”
The appearance by Mr. Obama, who is expected to also speak at a rally in Detroit later in the day, sets up a rare split-screen between him and Mr. Trump, who is scheduled to appear at a rally in Georgia in the evening and said at a recent rally that Mr. Obama had been a “rotten president.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Mr. Obama’s speech.
In Ohio, Mr. Obama was joining Dr. Amy Acton, the Democratic nominee for Ohio governor, and former Senator Sherrod Brown, the Democratic nominee for Senate in the state.
Dr. Acton’s race has consumed national politics in recent days, after her Republican opponent, Mr. Ramaswamy, aired an ad featuring Dr. Acton’s mother. Dr. Acton says she has not spoken to her mother since she was 12, after her stepfather was charged with raping her. The ad has split Republicans.
Mr. Obama assailed Mr. Ramaswamy over the ad, saying there appeared to be “no line” Mr. Ramaswamy would not cross.
“There’s a decency that we should expect out of our public officials,” the former president said. “And I don’t know what’s happened where the standards of behavior have gotten so low that somebody can run an ad like that.”
Dr. Acton also addressed the commercial, saying that Mr. Ramaswamy was targeting her family history to “save his struggling campaign.”
“It’s not going to work,” she said, “because compassion and decency still matter.”
Mr. Obama and Mr. Trump are presenting starkly different pitches in the final days before the midterms, with their parties locked in bitter battles for control of Congress and statehouses.
Mr. Trump, who is set to speak in Perry, Ga., on Saturday evening, has been pressing a message that Democrats are dangerous extremists. He has urged voters to pretend he is on the ballot, hoping to activate his party’s base. But polls show his approval rating has plummeted, and Republicans are on the defensive over high prices.
At a rally in Florida on Friday, Mr. Trump falsely accused Democrats of being communists and said a vote for Republicans would be a vote for “more money in your pockets, bigger paychecks for your families, lower taxes” and less crime.
The presidents have recently exchanged public criticisms — though Mr. Trump’s have typically been more frequent, forceful and direct.
Mr. Trump, who succeeded Mr. Obama in office in 2017, for years promoted a baseless, racist conspiracy theory that Mr. Obama was not born in the United States.
Mr. Obama has been selective about publicly criticizing Mr. Trump by name, though he has recently expressed disapproval of Mr. Trump’s approach to A.I., among other topics.
Mr. Obama has engaged heavily with midterm races, taping dozens of ads for candidates. But until Saturday, his time on the trail was limited to light campaigning in the spring with James Talarico, the Democratic nominee for Senate in Texas.
Mr. Obama made late endorsements over the weekend in Florida, backing David Jolly, the Democratic nominee for Florida governor, and Angie Nixon, the left-wing Democratic Senate nominee, who would be Florida’s first Black senator.
Mr. Obama was the last Democratic presidential candidate to carry Ohio, which was once seen as a quintessential swing state but has been drifting toward Republicans for years. Democrats have grown increasingly optimistic about their chances in the midterm elections in Ohio, though, as the state’s agriculture-heavy economy has buckled under the weight of the war in Iran and the president’s tariff policies.
He was set to travel next to Detroit to rally with Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, the progressive Democratic nominee in Michigan’s pivotal Senate race. Dr. El-Sayed has been trying to shore up his support from Black voters. Republicans see his race against Mike Rogers, a Republican former congressman, as their best chance to flip a Senate seat.
In the evening, Mr. Trump will make his appearance in Georgia, a state Mr. Obama plans to visit later in the week. On Sunday, Mr. Trump is set to visit Michigan.
Mr. Trump has directly addressed Mr. Obama’s trip to Michigan in his own recent remarks and has reminded audiences that he won Michigan in 2016 and 2024.
Mr. Obama had challenged Mr. Trump over his policies in recent weeks, if in less scathing terms than he did on Saturday. Last month, he publicly criticized Mr. Trump over his approach to A.I. for the first time, warning that the technology could “deeply affect our health and our safety.”
“There’s no replacement for an effective, government regulatory structure,” Mr. Obama said at an event in upstate New York. “And the challenge we have is that, obviously, we have a president currently that has said that’s for losers.”
Patricia Mazzei contributed reporting.
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