Former US President Barack Obama spoke at campaign rallies in Cleveland and Detroit on 24 October, where he criticised the administration of incumbent President Donald Trump. He accused it of chaos, cruelty and corruption, and said Trump had dragged the country into a war in Iran.
This was reported by The New York Times.
Speaking in Cleveland, Ohio, Obama described Trump’s second term as “two years of chaos, cruelty and corruption”. The newspaper noted that the former president has not criticised his successor so sharply for a long time.
Obama also said the Trump administration is defined by “an incompetence we have not yet seen in modern history”. He said senior officials in the current administration are “not serious people”, and that the president has drawn the United States into an economically painful war in Iran, “which nobody asked for”.
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The former president added that Democrats would help hold the Trump administration to account.
Criticising the White House chief, Obama also said America has not yet had a president who has “so wildly distinguished himself in outright fraud”.
In Obama’s view, Trump is more concerned with renovating the White House than with Americans’ needs. He mocked the residence’s gold décor and joked that the president belongs on HGTV, the US television channel about home renovation and design.
“His White House looks like Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory (a US restaurant chain – ed.). It’s gold everywhere,” Obama said.
Later the same day in Detroit, Michigan, the former president condemned the Trump administration’s “nonsense”. He also backed Democrat Abdul El-Sayed, who is running for the US Senate and could become the first Muslim in that chamber of Congress.
Obama appeared to allude to false claims promoted by Trump that Obama himself was born outside the United States.
“We’ve seen this film before: I played the leading role in it. I have a full birth certificate to prove it. It didn’t work on me,” he said.
Trump, who cast an early ballot in Florida the same day, responded by calling Obama a “terrible president”. According to the incumbent head of state, his predecessor’s speeches demonstrate the strength of the Republican Party.
“We beat them. When I started, the Republican Party was much weaker — smaller and weaker. And then I ran and I won,” Trump said, referring to his victories in the 2016 and 2024 presidential elections.
That evening, as Obama spoke in Michigan, Trump held his own rally in the city of Perry, Georgia. He claimed Obama had spoken to an “empty” hall, although, according to The New York Times, that was not true.
Trump also said his achievements surpass those of his predecessors.
“We are living in America’s golden age,” the president said, urging voters to back Republicans to cut taxes, reduce crime and improve the economy.
Trump is due to visit Michigan today, 25 October.