Trump defends White House redecorating – and Cheesecake Factory – from Obama's mocking

President Donald Trump took seven minutes out of his Monday night rally in Corinth, Mississippi, to defend his focus on White House renovation projects after one of his predecessors, Barack Obama, compared the redecorated Oval Office to an over-the-top cheesecake factory.

Trump denied spending excessive time on the projects, then went on to detail repairs to exterior plaster, as well as construction of a heliport and ballroom. He described the executive mansion’s previous condition in dire terms, including a cracked column, missing ornamentation and broken tile.

“I fix things very good, very beautifully,” he said. “It’s a natural thing. It actually relaxes me.”

Obama, campaigning for Democrats in Ohio on Saturday, joked that the proliferation of gold-colored appliqués in Trump’s Oval Office looked “like Saddam Hussein opened a cheesecake factory”. With his focus on home renovations, Obama added, Trump “should be on HGTV [a US TV network that largely runs reality programmes about home improvement and real estate].”

The slight played on a broader vulnerability for Trump, a real estate developer by profession, who has devoted considerable attention to remaking the White House and Washington even as most Americans disapprove of the projects. Fully 59% of respondents to a Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll conducted this month said Trump was spending “too much” time on the projects, compared with 27% of adults who said he is spending the right amount of time on the projects and 11% who said not enough.

Obama’s criticism appeared to particularly rankle Trump, who has feuded with him for decades.

Trump on Monday (local time) praised the Cheesecake Factory as “a very successful company” and defended the importance of tending to the White House’s physical condition.

“The White House represents our country and that has to be pristine,” he said. “And I would try and explain that to a guy like Obama, but he wouldn’t understand.”

Trump said he noticed the building in disrepair during a visit 20 years ago. There is no record of Trump visiting the White House between 1987, at a reception with President Ronald Reagan, and 2016, after he won the November presidential election.

Trump said he would have done the renovations in his first term but didn’t have the time. He then again denied spending time on them.

“I didn’t take any time,” he said. “It’s been my honour to do it. I have fun doing it.”