Trump falls for Obama’s 'rage-bait' in humiliating campaign self-own
At a Cleveland rally last weekend, former President Barack Obama went viral for a joke that Donald Trump has given the White House an overhaul look, as if Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory. Anita Chabria of the Los Angeles Times says the president took the bait. “Trump lost it,” she writes. Chabria argues that if there is anything we have learned about the president in recent years, it is that he is as fond of gold as he is of hating Obama. Adding, “Roll them together in one moment, and the leader of the free world can’t help but freak out.” Chabria also draws attention to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who is worth at least $500 million, visiting a Cheesecake Factory , where he had no trouble calling out Obama for elitism over the restaurant reference in his joke about Trump. In her view, Obama was not just cracking a joke but was “masterful at political strategy” in eliciting a response from the president. “It was rage-bait, crafted for engagement,” she says. She obser...