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President Trump doubled down on his criticism of Barack Obama even as he struggled to keep his voice amid a nearly nonstop midterm campaign rally blitz to keep his Republicans in control of Congress.
“I should save my voice because Barack Hussein Obama, have you heard of him?” he told a crowd in Mississippi on Monday night, pointing to the former president’s Saturday claims that Trump was too concerned with White House renovations.
“I didn’t take any time,” Trump said. “I literally do it when I walk home from the Oval.”
He also blasted Obama for bringing the Cheesecake Factory into the argument, calling it “a very successful company.”
“He doesn’t like successful companies,” Trump said.
Obama, while campaigning for Democrats in Ohio Saturday, told supporters Trump “should be on HGTV” due to his focus on construction.
“He’s got the White House looking like Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory,” the 44th president added.
Trump offered a prolonged defense of his White House renovations — which have included tearing down the East Wing to build a ballroom, repairing and repainting the North Portico columns of the residence, paving over the Rose Garden and blinging out the Oval Office in gold wall fixtures — as necessary to maintain the historic property.
“Nobody loves it like I do,” he said of the White House. “Nobody loves it, and now the White House is in beautiful shape.”
“We have to have a beautiful, beautiful, well-kept White House, a symbol of our country,” he added.
His message was clear even if his voice was not. Trump has struggled to make himself heard the past few days and kept his rally in Mississippi on the shorter side — a little less than 90 minutes. His speeches usually go almost two hours.
The president acknowledged his scratchy sound as he implored the MAGA faithful to come out and vote in next week’s election.
“God didn’t make your vocal cords to do a rally every day, but when you love the people, it’s fine — and we love you, we really do,” the president said.
Trump is moving through a whirlwind travel schedule, taking him to 30-plus campaign stops ahead of Election Day.
“We’ve been doing the rounds. We’ve been doing the rounds,” he said.
The president was in Georgia on Saturday and Michigan on Sunday. He has two campaign stops in Texas on Tuesday, will visit Ohio on Wednesday, rally in South Carolina on Thursday, and be in Florida on Friday.
He vowed to help Republican candidates for the next eight days.
Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) is doing “great,” Trump said at Monday’s rally.
He argued he was in the deep-red state, which he won by almost 23 points in the 2024 election, to “make sure.”
The last time Democrats won a Senate seat in Mississippi was 1982.
“I’m here because Cindy’s doing great, but I just got to make sure I can’t take a chance,” he said.
Democrats face an uphill battle to win control of the Senate, needing victories in several red states to take the majority. But party strategists believe traditional Republican strongholds like Texas, Iowa, Ohio, Kansas and Alaska are in play.
The problem, Trump explained, is “sometimes when you think somebody’s doing so well, nobody votes. They all stay home.”
“Then bad things happen,” he added.
Trump touched on several topics, including repeating his call for Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) to resign from Congress, and admitting he never liked the cease-fire with Iran.
“We did a little ceasefire, which I never liked very much,” he said, calling it “sort of a waste of time. But, you know, you like to listen to professionals.”
His administration reached a cease-fire with Iran in June, but that deal quickly collapsed.
The president’s biggest applause of the night came when he made a promise close to voters’ hearts.
Musing about how he’d like to rename a river and an ocean as he renamed a gulf and a lake, the president reassured the crowd that one river is off-limits.
“I promise I will never change the name of the Mississippi,” he said as the crowd gave a thunderous roar of approval.
