The Daily Show’s Desi Lydic tried to “Foxsplain” why MAGA is so incensed by Barack Obama’s Cheesecake Factory jab—but still fell short of understanding.
“Do I understand what Obama said? No,” Lydic said on The Daily Show. “Am I so mad that I’m vibrating like a broken refrigerator? Yeah.”
The former president joked at a campaign rally last week that President Donald Trump had made the White House look “like Saddam Hussein opened up a Cheesecake Factory.”
Trump has heavily redecorated the Oval Office, adding a gold trim and molding, along with gilded figurines and decor.
“I mean, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but he seems very focused on home renovations,” Obama said. “He should be on HGTV.”
Obama’s dig drew backlash from republican commentators and politicians, including Vice President JD Vance, who said the comment proved the former president “just can’t help himself from being super elitist.”
Lydic, who joked that she’d “been watching Fox News for 237 hours straight,” tried to explain the backlash.
“I’m mad because he had the audacity to insult the Cheesecake Factory,” she said. “Come on, everyone knows that the Cheesecake Factory is your regular, run-of-the-mill, small-town working-class eatery.”
The comedian then played clips of commentators describing the Cheesecake Factory as “fancy” and discussing saving up for a dinner there.
“OK, so the Cheesecake Factory is for everyone,” she said. “But also it’s very expensive. Just like gas right now.”
An individual main course at the casual sit-down chain restaurant costs around $18 to $28. Slices of cheesecake range from around $9 to $15.
Lydic also shared a video of former Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, insisting that the controversy isn’t about the Cheesecake Factory or affordability at all.
“This is about the Democrats not being able to appreciate beauty,” Leavitt said.
Obama’s Cheesecake Factory comment even rankled Trump, who called the restaurant chain a “very successful company” and spent seven minutes defending his renovation projects during a rally in Mississippi.
“I fix things very good, very beautifully,” Trump said. “It’s a natural thing. It actually relaxes me.”
Most voters dislike the president’s renovation projects. Fifty-nine percent of respondents to a Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll conducted this month said Trump was spending too much time on his White House improvement projects.
But the president argued that the “White House represents our country” and must be “pristine.”
“I would try and explain that to a guy like Obama, but he wouldn’t understand,” he said.
