Barack Obama stormed back onto the campaign trail on Saturday, headlining his first rally of the midterm season in Cleveland, Ohio, where he campaigned for Democrat Amy Acton in the race for governor and for Sherrod Brown's bid to return to the US Senate — and delivered a blistering, joke-filled attack on President Donald Trump over high prices, the war with Iran and Trump's gilded White House renovations.
Photo: SecretName101, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The Ohio Senate contest, in which Brown faces Republican incumbent Jon Husted, is one of the races that could decide control of the chamber in the November 3 midterm elections, and Obama's appearance underlined how heavily Democrats are leaning on their most popular surrogate in the final stretch of the campaign.
Obama blamed Trump's Iran war for the high oil prices squeezing American households, and turned the same argument on the administration's handling of the conflict. "Hundreds of Americans have been wounded. We have run down our stock of missiles, and Iran now has veto power over the Strait of Hormuz," he said. "Meanwhile, you've got the defense secretary who's squarely focused on important matters like the jawlines and testosterone levels of our troops."
Some of his loudest cheers came when he turned to Trump's renovations of the executive mansion. "I don't know if you've noticed, but he seems very focused on home renovations. He should be on HGTV. The guy's building a ballroom that's bigger than the White House. Paved over 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 adding the line that drew the biggest reaction of the day: "He's got the White House looking like Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory. Just gold everywhere."
After the rally, Obama carried the same message to social media, urging Ohioans to back the Democratic ticket. "Ohio, let's do what we can to elect @AmyActonOH as your next Governor and @SherrodBrown as your next U.S. Senator! They've dedicated their lives to fighting on behalf of all Ohioans," he wrote on X.
"If we're willing to organise and mobilise, if we're willing to turn out in big numbers in Ohio and across this country, if we're willing to vote for change and vote for Democrats up and down the ballot, then this election might just mark the moment this country began moving in a better direction," he told the crowd, urging supporters to make a plan to vote.
The appearance comes at the decisive moment of the midterm cycle. The November 3 elections will put all 435 seats in the House of Representatives and about a third of the Senate up for grabs, in a nationwide vote that acts as a temperature check on Trump's presidency — and on whether his party keeps control of Congress for the remainder of his term. Obama closed his pitch by urging supporters to lock in their votes early: "So make a plan to vote today," he said, pointing voters to the party's voting information site.
Trump responded on Saturday, dismissing the former president as "a lousy president." The exchange set the tone for the final days of the midterm campaign, with Democrats betting that Obama's attacks on prices and the cost of the Iran war can move persuadable voters, and Republicans betting that Trump's base will turn out in greater numbers.
Sources: The Wall Street Journal, Associated Press (via Republic World)