Obama calls Cheesecake Factory outrage a distraction from living costs

The Root's campaign-speech excerpt centers on his criticism of the Treasury secretary's restaurant-side response.

Channel: The Root Story of October 30, 2026Trari Newsroom

Why this story? The video opened at a pace of 44,460 views a day, 10 times a normal first day on this channel (4,332).

President Barack Obama Responds to Trump's Reaction to the Cheesecake Factory Joke | The Root

Sending the Treasury secretary to address a restaurant joke makes little sense to Barack Obama when Americans are worried about prices. In a campaign-speech excerpt posted by The Root, the former president turns that contrast into an argument about the administration's priorities.

First, he explains the joke: the White House renovations reminded him of Saddam Hussein opening a Cheesecake Factory. In Obama's telling, the restaurant comparison, rather than the reference to Hussein, was what upset Donald Trump.

He pauses to establish that he has nothing against the chain, recalling years of visits to family restaurants with his daughters. Then he returns to the Treasury secretary's response, arguing that economic policy should be getting that attention instead.

"They don't have solutions to actual problems," Obama says. He presents the controversy as an effort to keep attention on outrage rather than higher living costs.

The excerpt drew about 34,000 views in its first 14 hours, an unusually fast start for The Root's Shorts. Its comment count had also already passed six times the channel's usual full-day total for that format.

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Obama calls Cheesecake Factory outrage a distraction from living costs The full story on Trari: https://trari.com/en/story/theroot-20515/?from=kit

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The numbers

The Obama excerpt is drawing an unusually large audience for a Short on The Root, with an especially busy comment section.

the video's first day

usual first day here

4,332

this video

44,460

subscribers

273,000

▲ 6,000 in the last 7 days

total views

61,531,201

views per day

141,344

typical day: 336,426

the video

views

34,198

likes

1,520

comments

147

days online

1

subscribers: this channel and similar channels

Juno News

278,000

The Root

273,000

The Sydney Morning Herald…

270,000

The Globe and Mail

265,000

RTÉ News

255,000

RNZ

252,000

As of October 30, 2026 · Data source: Trari Social News, Trari Traffic Trends and Ranking Platform, Google YouTube

Subscriber, view, like and comment counts are YouTube's. Rates, usual days, rankings, comparisons and categories are Trari's own calculations.