Barack Obama wants to set the record straight: he loves The Cheesecake Factory as much as the next dad.
The former president defended his record on the California-based restaurant chain while campaigning for Democrats in Atlanta on Wednesday. At a campaign rally in Cleveland on Saturday, Obama said President Donald Trump’s White House renovations had it “looking like Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory.”
The joke sparked dayslong backlash from Republicans and the White House, who framed Obama as an elitist out of touch with average Americans. Obama countered by saying he’s spent plenty of time at the restaurant chain.
“I am the father of two daughters. Do you think I could have survived their childhood without going to The Cheesecake Factory?” Obama asked the crowd on Wednesday. “I lived at Chuck E. Cheese and California Pizza Kitchen and The Cheesecake Factory. That was my jam for about a decade.”
Following Obama’s initial comment over the weekend, Trump called him a “lousy president” for comparing the White House to the restaurant. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent ate at a Cheesecake Factory on Monday and said he “would tell the Martha’s Vineyard set to give it a try.”
Obama, who was campaigning with Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff and gubernatorial candidate Keisha Lance Bottoms, criticized the response to his comment. He said the White House devoted more energy to rebutting his Cheesecake Factory joke than to addressing affordability or allegations of corruption.
“The president wasn’t even mad about the Saddam Hussein comparison,” he said. “That part didn’t bother him, but he was very upset about the Cheesecake Factory. He took great umbrage.”
Obama said the White House “mobilized” a response to his joke but “not to inflation,” pointing to Bessent’s Cheesecake Factory visit: “This is the man who is in charge of the economy, the person who’s supposed to be figuring out how to make your life more affordable.”
The White House did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
The Cheesecake Factory did not respond to a request for comment and has not publicly addressed the controversy. The company did, however, score a win on Tuesday, when it reported a third-quarter earnings beat. Its stock price was up over 100% this year as of market close Wednesday.
Cheesecake Factory executives did not mention the controversy on the earnings call.
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