Obama Mocks Trump's Gold White House. Bessent Calls Obama's Nearly $1 Billion Museum 'Darth Vader's Tomb'

Barack Obama went to Cleveland on Saturday to rally for Sherrod Brown's Senate run and Amy Acton's campaign for governor. Then he spent part of his speech on Trump's paint and molding. "He seems very focused on home renovations," Obama told the crowd. "He should be on HGTV."

His closer was the line that went viral: "He's got the White House looking like Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory. There's gold everywhere."

By Monday night the answers were piling up. The sharpest came from the Treasury secretary, outside the very restaurant chain Obama used as a punch line. And it pointed at a building Obama would rather not talk about: his own.

Bessent: 'Darth Vader's tomb'

The White House's Rapid Response account posted video of Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent "leaving the Cheesecake Factory after lunch." Fox Business reporter Nicole McManus asked him about Obama's jab, and he didn't take long.

"This is the man who built the museum that looks like Darth Vader's tomb," Bessent said. Then he said he'd had a great meal and offered some advice: "I would tell the Martha's Vineyard set to give it a try."

"The museum" is the Obama Presidential Center on Chicago's South Side. Its centerpiece is a 225-foot granite Museum Tower. The campus opened to the public June 19. That granite tower is what Bessent was talking about.

Trump: 'Shows why you were a lousy president'

Trump took his own shot at Joint Base Andrews before flying to Mississippi. He said he had fixed a White House that was "in horrible shape," with ornaments that "were laying on the ground, in some cases," cracked exterior plaster and broken pilasters by the front door.

"Guys like Obama don't see it," Trump said. "He doesn't see filth. He doesn't see broken ornaments on a building." His finish: "For you to say it's a Cheesecake Factory, that just shows why you were a lousy president."

He kept going that night at his rally in Corinth, Mississippi. "He said this isn't a Cheesecake Factory. Can you believe it? Which is a very successful company," Trump told the crowd. "He doesn't like successful companies." He walked through the new helipad, "with the eagle of the United States carved on top," which he said he'd barely get to use. "This is for the president," he said. "This is for the future." Then the ballroom going up where the East Wing stood, with bulletproof windows and a roof he called "drone proof, missileproof."

The official White House account added its own dessert course: "The only thing bigger than the menu is the list of President Trump's accomplishments."

The building Obama didn't mention

Here is the part the Cleveland crowd didn't hear. Obama's own monument has a price problem.

The center was first pitched at $350 million. It hit $500 million when design wrapped in 2017 and was billed at $850 million when it opened in June. On Sept. 26 the Obama Foundation put the price at $909 million. Foundation CEO Valerie Jarrett credited "additional amenities."

Less than a month later, a foundation filing reported by Engineering News-Record pushed the projection to about $1 billion. That covers more construction on the campus basketball center, public art and insurance. "We anticipate our total cost for constructing the campus is approximately $1 billion, again, all raised in private contributions," foundation spokeswoman Emily Bittner said.

The foundation's numbers leave out another $123 million in publicly paid infrastructure work in and around the site, according to the Sun-Times. And ENR reports that trade subcontractors are still waiting on settlements. They told ENR nobody had said whether any of the new money would go to liens and legal claims. The foundation says it has no outstanding disputed charges with its main contractor and no direct contracts with that contractor's subcontractors.

Think of a neighbor who mocks your new kitchen while his own remodel nearly triples in price.

Why it matters

Obama is closing the campaign for Democrats, and the midterms are eight days out. He used his Cleveland stage to tell voters Trump is "clearly not focused on lowering prices for you." The line people remember, though, is a joke about gold trim and a chain restaurant that ordinary Americans actually eat at.

Trump's answer is that the house belongs to the country, and the work is maintenance Obama's team let slide: missing ornaments, cracked plaster, broken columns. The White House says the ballroom is paid for by private donors. A donor list published by The Washington Post on Oct. 15 totals $333 million in private pledges.

So both men built with private money. One fixed up the people's house and will hand it to the next president. The other built a monument to himself that ran almost three times its first budget. Bessent picked the right lunch spot.

What's next

Election Day is Nov. 3. Trump keeps rallying for Senate Republicans, and the ballroom is still under construction. Trump says it is ahead of schedule.