Former President Barack Obama has attacked the Trump administration over the Iran war and high consumer prices as he hit the campaign trail for Democrats ahead of the US midterm elections.
“This election is our last best chance to at least rein in some of the foolishness of this administration,” Obama told crowds in Ohio on Saturday.
Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump touted his administration’s immigration and tariff policies at a rally in Georgia, telling supporters “we’re in the golden age of America”.
The midterm elections on 3 November will decide which party controls Congress for the rest of Trump’s term, and therefore how easy it is for the president to carry out his plans.
Speaking on Saturday in Ohio and Michigan, Obama targeted Trump and his cabinet members, at one point mocking the president’s attempt to redecorate the White House.
“After two years of chaos and cruelty and corruption and incompetence, the likes of which we have not seen in the modern era, you get a chance to say, ‘enough is enough,'” the former president said in Cleveland.
Obama said he sympathised with voters who rejected Democrats in 2024 over economic and inflation concerns following the Covid pandemic. But he said Trump had only himself to blame for the current state of the economy.
“If you thought everything was too expensive before ‘you know who’,” he said, referring to Trump without using his name, “everything is more expensive now”.
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Trump, meanwhile, acknowledged that oil prices were “temporarily high” but said “our country is getting stronger and stronger all the time, and those pump prices are going to come down”.
The Republican president has faced significant pressure to lower fuel prices, which have jumped due to the wars in Iran and Ukraine.
Talking up the economy, Trump told the crowd in Perry “we’re taking in massive amounts of money through tariffs”, and repeated his pledge to offer every adult American a $5,000 (£3,700) payout if Republicans win both chambers of Congress.
He also took aim at the Democrats, telling the crowd they would “loot your wealth” and “annihilate your borders”.
Using derogatory language, he accused the Democrats of trying to open up immigration from Libya, Yemen, Haiti and Somalia – countries which he described as “terror-infested”.
Describing a previous meeting with several senators, he recalled: “I said, ‘Why do we always have to take people from shithouse countries? Why can’t we take people from, like, well… Norway, Sweden? Why not Denmark?'”
ReutersIn Ohio, the current president faced an attack from his predecessor over the war in Iran, with Obama telling Democrat supporters the conflict had given Tehran “veto power” over the Strait of Hormuz.
When asked about the war earlier in the day, 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.”
He was also asked whether Melania Trump would would visit Ukraine after the White House announced she secured a ceasefire in a Russian-occupied city. “We will see,” he said.
‘What’s with all the gold?’
At his afternoon rally, Obama also took a swipe at Trump’s efforts to renovate the White House.
“What’s with all the gold? He’s got the White House looking like Saddam Hussein opened up a Cheesecake Factory,” Obama joked.
Obama’s rally in Ohio was to show support for ex-Senator Sherrod Brown, who is running to unseat incumbent Republican Senator John Husted, and Amy Acton, who is running for state governor against Republican Vivek Ramaswamy.
In his remarks, Obama criticised Ramaswamy for a campaign ad released last week in which Acton’s estranged mother was featured calling her a liar. The ad didn’t mention that the woman’s husband was charged with raping Acton when she was a child.
“In recent days, we’ve seen there is no line he will not cross. No low he will not sink to try to get in the limelight,” Obama said. “I mean, think about this latest ad he ran.”
Acton also spoke at the campaign rally before Obama to argue that Ramaswamy “has chosen to exploit my childhood” to “save his struggling campaign”.
