Former President Barack Obama assailed the Trump administration’s handling of the Iran war and rising consumer prices on Saturday as he campaigned for Democrats ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm elections, while President Donald Trump promoted his immigration and tariff agenda at a rally in Georgia.
Obama told supporters in Cleveland that the election offered voters “our last best chance to at least rein in some of the foolishness of this administration.” He later appeared in Detroit, where he campaigned for Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed and gubernatorial candidate Jocelyn Benson.
Obama Targets Economy, War
At the Ohio rally, Obama said the administration had produced “two years of chaos and cruelty and corruption and incompetence” and urged voters to respond on Election Day. He acknowledged that many voters backed Trump in 2024 because of economic concerns, but said prices had risen further under the current president.
“If you thought everything was too expensive before ‘you know who,’” Obama said, referring to Trump, “everything is more expensive now.”
Obama also criticized the war in Iran, saying it had given Tehran “veto power” over the Strait of Hormuz and contributed to higher fuel costs. He argued that the conflict and the administration’s tariffs had driven up household expenses and worsened the federal deficit.
The former president mocked Trump’s White House renovation as well, asking, “What’s with all the gold?” and joking that the president had made the executive mansion look like “Saddam Hussein opened up a Cheesecake Factory.”
Trump Promises ‘Golden Age’
Trump, speaking at a rally in Perry, Georgia, told supporters that the country was in “the golden age of America.” He defended his tariff policy, saying the United States was “taking in massive amounts of money through tariffs,” and repeated his pledge to provide every adult American a $5,000 payment if Republicans win both chambers of Congress.
The president acknowledged that oil prices were “temporarily high,” but predicted pump prices would fall. “Our country is getting stronger and stronger all the time, and those pump prices are going to come down,” Trump said.
Fuel prices have become a political vulnerability for the administration as costs rise amid the wars in Iran and Ukraine.
Trump also attacked Democrats on immigration, accusing them of seeking to “loot your wealth” and “annihilate your borders.” He used derogatory language to describe immigrants from several countries and questioned why the United States should admit people from what he called “shithouse countries” rather than from Norway, Sweden or Denmark.
Asked about the Iran war, Trump said, “I’ve done it very effectively and I may have to finish it off, or maybe they’ll make a deal, but I’m not sure. Either way, we win.”
Control of Congress at Stake
The Nov. 3 elections will determine which party controls Congress for the remainder of Trump’s term, shaping the president’s ability to advance his legislative agenda. Early voting is underway in several states.
Trump cast his ballot Saturday in Florida alongside first lady Melania Trump.
In Ohio, Obama campaigned for former Sen. Sherrod Brown, who is challenging Republican Sen. John Husted, and for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Amy Acton, who faces Republican Vivek Ramaswamy.
Obama criticized Ramaswamy over a campaign advertisement featuring Acton’s estranged mother, saying the ad omitted that the woman’s husband had been charged with raping Acton when she was a child. Acton, speaking before Obama, accused Ramaswamy of exploiting her childhood to “save his struggling campaign.”
Final Stretch
Obama’s appearances marked his first large-scale in-person campaign events of the midterm cycle, as Democrats seek to mobilize voters around economic pressures, health care and opposition to Trump’s policies.
Trump’s Georgia rally was part of a broader Republican push in closely contested states, with both parties treating control of the Senate and House as pivotal to the final two years of his presidency.
