A joke by Barack Obama about the White House has turned the Cheesecake Factory into a political flashpoint, The Guardian and the Washington Examiner report.

Campaigning for Democrats in Ohio, the former president mocked President Trump's changes to the White House. "He's got the White House looking like Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory. Just gold everywhere," Obama said. The Washington Examiner reports the jab was aimed at Trump's plan to build a ballroom.

Trump hit back on Monday. At a rally in Mississippi, he said Obama had left the White House "filthy, dirty, and broken," the Washington Examiner reports. The Guardian says Trump spent nearly two minutes on the topic when a reporter asked him about it, saying the work was done by the "finest artisans."

Critics on the right said Obama was mocking a restaurant for regular people. The Guardian points to a Fox News on-screen line that read "Obama criticized for Cheesecake Factory 'snobbery.'" Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent then ate at the chain and said he ordered "what I always have: the French Dip Cheeseburger."

Obama answered again on Wednesday at a rally in Georgia for Senator Jon Ossoff. "They mobilized a whole-of-government response to that joke, not to inflation, but to that joke," he said. He added that as the father of two daughters he "lived at Chuck E. Cheese and California Pizza Kitchen and the Cheesecake Factory."

The chain opened its first restaurant in Beverly Hills, California, in 1978. It now has hundreds of locations in the US and Canada, The Guardian reports. On Tuesday, the company reported third-quarter revenue of $1.03 billion, up from $907.2 million a year earlier.

What we know: Obama's joke drew a reply from Trump and his team, and Obama says he was a longtime Cheesecake Factory regular.
What we don't: Whether the spat will matter to voters before the November 3 midterm elections.