Obama called Trump and Republicans “not serious people” during a Georgia rally.
He criticised tariffs, the Iran war and Trump’s White House renovations.
Protesters confronted Trump during a rally in rural Chillicothe.
Barack Obama unleashed attacks on US President Donald Trump during a campaign rally in suburban Atlanta on Wednesday, calling Trump and the Republican Party “not serious people.”
Obama visited Georgia to campaign for US Senator Jon Ossoff, former Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, who is running for governor, and other Democratic candidates. The visit was part of his nationwide campaign tour ahead of next week’s election.
Around 3,500 to 4,000 people gathered at the Clayton County Discovery Centre, south of Atlanta, for the late-stage campaign event, reported the Guardian.
Obama criticised Trump’s tariffs and decision to go to war with Iran, echoing the Democrats’ usual attacks on his policies. He also said the election would determine the future of American values and invoked the vision of Martin Luther King Jr., the slain civil rights leader buried in Atlanta.
Obama has used his campaign appearances to deliver sharp criticism of Republican candidates and Donald Trump, taking a more direct approach than he typically has as a former president.
On Wednesday, he continued his attacks by referring to Trump’s lavish White House renovations and the strong reaction to Obama’s joke last week comparing the changes to Saddam Hussein decorating a Cheesecake Factory.
“The Saddam Hussein thing didn’t bother him. But he was very upset about the Cheesecake Factory,” Obama said. “I mean, it’s all crazy, but this is the crazy part: they mobilised a whole government response to that joke,” according to the Guardian
He further added, "There is a moral component to the choices we face right now."
"We are not going to fix the system that's broken, we're not going to unrig our economy, so long as we've got a culture where anything goes, where people in the highest offices of the land think it's OK to lie and cheat and bully, if we continue to have a culture where money is deemed the only measure of our worth," Obama said.
Trump Had To Face Protesters
While Trump has been greeted by enthusiastic crowds at rallies during the campaign, his motorcade faced protests in rural Chillicothe. Hundreds of demonstrators lined the route, holding banners with messages such as “Republican against Trump,” “Grab them by the ballot,” and “GOP: Guardians of pedophiles," Reuters reported.
Protesters also interrupted Trump several times during the rally, with at least one shouting about Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted sex offender who died in 2019.
"I threw Jeffrey Epstein the hell out of Mar-a-Lago," Trump said in response.
Trump and Epstein socialised during the 1990s and early 2000s. Trump has said they later fell out and that he banned Epstein from Mar-a-Lago, his private club in Palm Beach, Florida.
Protesters have disrupted nearly all of Trump's recent rallies. Security personnel typically remove them, while Trump often claims they are being paid to protest.
