US President Donald Trump has been telling voters to view the mid-term elections as if he were on the ballot, and one of his Democratic predecessors has done just that.
Ten days out from the elections that will determine control of the closely divided Congress, Barack Obama took to the campaign trail on Saturday to accuse the Republican president of corruption, deride his strategy for Iran and skewer the gilded aesthetic he has applied to White House renovations.
Obama stumped for Democratic candidates at rallies in Cleveland and Detroit, lampooning the Trump administration.
Campaigning in Michigan for US Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, Obama framed the November 3 vote as a “circuit breaker” to “at least rein in some of the foolishness” of Trump’s presidency.
“We got to flip that circuit breaker, bring some accountability to this government,” Obama said.
Obama remains the Democratic Party’s best motivator nearly a decade after leaving the White House and he’s taking his star power on the road in the final days of the mid-term elections, which will help determine the balance of power in American politics.
They hope that bringing him into the race can fire up their supporters for a tight US Senate race in which El-Sayed faces Republican Mike Rogers, a former US representative.
The former president obliged the Michigan crowd by playing to Democrats’ frequently repeated criticisms of Trump and of Republicans’ willingness to go along with him.
“We have never seen a president excel in straight-up grifting, on your dime, like this,” Obama said.
“Never seen a president so intent on selling favours like this … Now the party seems to stand for corrupt government, or inept government, or no government.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll in August found that 63 per cent of Americans think the president and his family have inappropriately profited from cryptocurrency since he returned to the White House in 2025 and 69 per cent believe his policy decisions are influenced by his private business dealings.
Obama also ridiculed the administration’s claims of victory against Iran. He argued that the war has given Iran more economic leverage because its threats to attack shipping in the Strait of Hormuz have unsettled oil exporters.
“Iran now has veto power over the Strait of Hormuz, where oil goes through to get to the world,” Obama said.
The former president also accused the Trump administration of emphasising trivial matters, sarcastically calling Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth someone “laser-focused on important matters like the jawline and testosterone levels of our troops” and ridiculing White House renovations as tacky.
“I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but he seems very focused on home renovation,” Obama quipped. “He should be on HGTV,” he said.
“There’s gold everywhere. He’s got the White House looking like Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory.”
with AP
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