U.S. President Donald Trump talks to members of the media while holding up renderings of planned White House ballroom, aboard Air Force One U.S., March 29, 2026. REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz
President Donald Trump's White House renovation obsession is becoming an unlikely political headache, with one columnist arguing that his attempt to turn criticism of the makeover into another MAGA culture war is falling flat.
Barack Obama gave Trump a taste of his own medicine by mocking the redecorated White House during a weekend campaign appearance in Ohio. In the viral roast, the former president said the gold-heavy White House makeover made it look "like Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory."
Trump responded by attacking Obama, then defended his decorating choices at a Mississippi rally. The president called the Cheesecake Factory a "successful company" and claimed the White House was falling apart and had to be "clean, pristine, beautiful."
But Salon senior politics writer Amanda Marcotte argued that Trump's reaction reveals a problem with a strategy of using culture wars as a political loyalty litmus test that once helped him connect with supporters is not having the same effect.
Her argument goes beyond the Oval Office and into whether the MAGA coalition that was built around cultural identity can still attract people living with higher costs of goods, rent, and bills.
Marcotte pointed to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent posing for photos at a Cheesecake Factory in suburban Maryland on Monday as a response to Obama's joke.
She described it as “the latest in a series of MAGA’s long list of kitsch-related tantrums, which have seen them feign enthusiasm for middlebrow corporate products as evidence of their identity as 'real' Americans, unlike those snooty Democrats with their fancy mustards.”
To make her point, she also mentioned Bessent’s $600 million net worth.
The tactic recalls last year's backlash against Cracker Barrel's redesigned logo. Conservatives attacked the restaurant chain's effort to modernize its image, turning a branding decision into a wider argument about American traditions.
Marcotte mentioned the culture war outrage involving Cracker Barrel's redesigned logo, where conservatives lashed out at the restaurant chain’s effort to modernize its image.
She wrote that the Cheesecake Factory appeals to a different demographic, which she describes as a “younger, more modern audience that doesn’t take itself seriously.”
She added that its sprawling international menu is part of the joke and also complicates MAGA’s efforts to present the chain as a symbol of a conservative tradition.
The columnist argued that the White House's gold-heavy decor symbolizes the widening gap between Trump's cultural priorities and voters' everyday concerns, particularly about the cost of living.
Marcotte acknowledged that Trump's eccentric taste appealed to supporters during the 2024 campaign. But she said those preferences look different when his foreign and domestic policies negatively affect their lives.
She also referenced Bad Bunny’s successful Super Bowl performance despite MAGA’s backlash to a Spanish-speaking show and, in closing: “When the president is more worried about redecorating the White House in his schmaltzy self-image than he is about the real struggles of Americans, the kitsch stops being so funny.
