Obama issues searing attacks on Trump and Ramaswamy in return to campaign trail
By TIM BALK, EMILY DAVIES, JOHN YOON and RICHARD FAUSSET
Former President Barack Obama on Saturday attacked President Donald Trump’s administration in searing and mocking terms, saying it was defined by “incompetence the likes of which we have not seen in modern times.”
Appearing in Cleveland at his first campaign rally of the midterm elections, Obama delivered his most forceful attack on Trump in recent memory. He also criticized an explosive campaign ad from the Republican nominee for Ohio governor, Vivek Ramaswamy, saying it exemplified a coarsening of American politics.
Hours later, Obama was in Detroit, denouncing what he said was the “foolishness” of the Trump administration. As Obama was speaking in Michigan, Trump took the stage at his own rally in Perry, Georgia, creating a rare split-screen between the two presidents. Trump said his accomplishments eclipsed those of his predecessors and falsely claimed that Obama had spoken to an “empty” venue in Michigan.
Obama, who has been selective about publicly criticizing Trump, condemned his Republican successor’s stewardship of the country in language that was personal and pointed. He said in Ohio that Trump’s second term had amounted to “two years of chaos and cruelty and corruption,” argued that top administration officials were “not serious people” and said Trump had led the country into an economically painful war in Iran “that nobody asked for.”
Obama, describing Trump as “you know who” or “this guy in the White House,” said America had never had a president “excel so wildly at just straight-up grifting.” And he cast Trump as disconnected from Americans’ needs, engrossed instead by White House renovation projects.
“He should be on HGTV,” Obama said, ridiculing Trump’s focus on applying gold trimmings to the White House. “He’s got the White House looking like Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory. Just gold everywhere.”
Trump, who voted early in Florida on Saturday hours before his rally, told reporters that Obama had been a “lousy president” and cast the former president’s remarks as a signal of Republicans’ strength.
“We’ve beaten them,” Trump said, referring to his victories in 2016 and 2024. “When I started, we had a very much weaker Republican Party — a smaller, weaker Republican Party. And then I ran, and I won.”
Trump and Obama have long had a complicated and tense relationship. Trump, who succeeded Obama in office in 2017, for years promoted a racist lie that Obama had not been born in the United States. Trump regularly refers to Obama by his full name, Barack Hussein Obama, and continued to do so at his rally Saturday night.
The presidents had recently exchanged public criticisms — though Trump’s had typically been more frequent, forceful and direct. In June, Obama said he thought Trump had an “obsession” with him.
But they also appeared to share a friendly conversation at former President Jimmy Carter’s funeral in 2025. After the ceremony, Trump told reporters that they “probably” like each other and just have “different philosophies.”
In Michigan, Obama appeared to nod to Trump’s questioning of his place of birth as he spoke about Republicans’ efforts to cast doubt on the patriotism of Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic Senate nominee in the state, who would be the first Muslim senator if elected.
“We have seen this movie before: I starred in it,” said Obama, who won Michigan in the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections. “I’ve got a long-form birth certificate to prove it. This stuff didn’t work on me. Not in Michigan. It’s not going to work on Abdul. Abdul’s as Michigan as it gets.”
In Ohio, Obama was joining Amy Acton, the Democratic nominee for Ohio governor, and former Sen. Sherrod Brown, the Democratic nominee for Senate in the state.
Acton’s race has consumed national politics in recent days, after her Republican opponent, Ramaswamy, aired an ad featuring Acton’s mother. Acton says she has not spoken to her mother since she was 12, after her stepfather was charged with raping her. The ad has split Republicans.
Obama assailed Ramaswamy over the ad, saying there appeared to be “no line” Ramaswamy would not cross.
“There’s a decency that we should expect out of our public officials,” Obama said. “And I don’t know what’s happened where the standards of behavior have gotten so low that somebody can run an ad like that.”
Acton also addressed the commercial, saying that Ramaswamy was targeting her family history to “save his struggling campaign.”
“It’s not going to work,” she said, “because compassion and decency still matter.”
A spokesperson for Ramaswamy’s campaign, Connie Luck, argued in a statement that Obama had left America “more divided than ever” and suggested that Acton, a former director of the Ohio Health Department, was not qualified to be governor.
Obama and Trump are presenting starkly different pitches in the final days before the midterms, with their parties locked in bitter battles for control of Congress and statehouses.
Trump has been pressing a message that Democrats are dangerous extremists. He has urged voters to “pretend” he is on the ballot, hoping to activate his party’s base. But polls show his approval rating has plummeted, and Republicans are on the defensive over high prices.
“I am on the ballot, essentially,” Trump said in Georgia on Saturday night.
Trump has argued that a vote for Republicans would be a vote for lower taxes, less crime and a better economy.
“We’re in the golden age of America,” Trump said, adding, “Companies are pouring in.”
Obama said that Democrats would help bring accountability to what he said was an off-the-rails and out-of-touch administration.
The appearances by Trump and Obama on Saturday were striking in their contrasting styles: While Trump’s speech was lengthy and meandering, Obama’s two speeches were far more scripted.
Trump spoke longer in his one speech than Obama did across two.
Obama has engaged heavily with midterm races, taping dozens of ads for candidates. But until Saturday, his time on the trail had been limited to light campaigning in the spring with James Talarico, the Democratic nominee for Senate in Texas.
Obama made late endorsements over the weekend in Florida, backing David Jolly, the Democratic nominee for Florida governor, and Angie Nixon, the left-wing Democratic Senate nominee, who would be Florida’s first Black senator.
Obama was the last Democratic presidential candidate to carry Ohio, which was once seen as a quintessential swing state but has been drifting toward Republicans for years. Democrats have grown increasingly optimistic about their chances in the midterm elections in Ohio, though, as the state’s agriculture-heavy economy has buckled under the weight of the war in Iran and the president’s tariff policies.
In bluer Michigan, the Democratic Senate nominee, El-Sayed, has been trying to shore up his support from Black and Jewish voters. Republicans see his race against former Rep. Mike Rogers as their best chance to flip a Senate seat.
Democrats emerged divided from a bitter Senate primary race between the progressive El-Sayed and Rep. Haley Stevens, a moderate. Some Jewish Democrats in Michigan say they are concerned by El-Sayed’s fierce criticism of Israel and are torn about whether to support him. Tensions between Michigan’s Black and Arab American communities have also challenged El-Sayed.
At his evening rally, Obama, a more moderate Democrat, acknowledged differences that El-Sayed had expressed with his presidency in the past.
“You know who else doesn’t agree with everything I do?” he asked the crowd at a high school gymnasium. “Michelle Obama.”
Obama suggested there would be power in sending El-Sayed to Washington to join Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, a Jewish Democrat who has endorsed El-Sayed.
“Imagine the power duo of Abdul and Elissa,” Obama said. “You’ve got a Muslim man, you got a Jewish woman fighting for you in the United States Senate. That’s something, Michigan, you can be proud of.”
Trump was set to visit Michigan on Sunday.
