Obama Hits the Trail for Democrats in Final Midterm Push, Launches Blistering Attacks on Trump

Former president Barack Obama has taken to the campaign trail in the closing days of the US midterm elections, delivering a series of blistering speeches for Democratic candidates. The elections will decide the balance of power in Congress for the remainder of Donald Trump's second term.

Campaigning in Detroit for Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, Obama acknowledged that his fellow Democrat has criticised some aspects of his presidency. 'Yeah, Abdul didn't agree with some things we wanted to do — that our administration was doing — when I was president,' he told the rally. 'You know who else doesn't agree with everything I do? Michelle Obama.' The crowd erupted in laughter.

At a rally inside an arena in suburban Atlanta, Georgia, the crowd chanted 'Yes, we can!' — reviving the cadence of Obama's 2008 campaign. There he said: 'This election is our last, best chance of at least reining him in, reining in some of the foolishness of this administration. It's the circuit-breaker in the system, and we need to flip it.'

America's first Black president has mercilessly mocked Trump's autocratic pretensions and derided his foreign policy misadventures in the Middle East.

For party strategists, deploying Obama in the campaign's closing stretch was a calculated gamble. Unlike Trump, who has spent weeks staging grievance-filled rallies in traditional Republican strongholds, Obama maintained a selective public profile until the final weeks, allowing a new generation of Democratic candidates to establish their own identities before a late burst of star power.

David Litt, a former Obama White House speechwriter, said: 'What you're seeing is him coming in to support a new generation of Democratic leaders who have emerged organically, rather than trying to be involved from day one. He still has both a credibility and an ability to drive turnout that, if you're a candidate in a close race, you can absolutely benefit from — especially among young voters and Black voters.'

Litt added that attention is hard to get these days and Obama is good at getting it, and that Obama continues to live in Trump's head 'rent-free' — with Trump, instead of talking about his accomplishments on the stump, relitigating decisions involving ballroom renovations after being triggered by a single sentence from the former president.

That sentence came at a rally in Cleveland, Ohio, when Obama observed that Trump's gold-encrusted renovations have left the White House looking as if 'Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory'.

The comment triggered a mini culture war in rightwing media. Trump waved his arms to mimic a lettuce leaf, accused Obama of snobbery and said every piece of lettuce Obama eats has to be perfect. He defended his gilded White House decor and claimed Obama had left the executive mansion 'deteriorated'.

Trump's treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, a wealthy former hedge fund manager, even staged a photo-op outside a Cheesecake Factory in Washington, ordering a french-dip cheeseburger in an apparent attempt to rebut accusations of elitism.

Obama is 65 and left office nearly a decade ago. Yet his late-campaign deployment has proved a hit with Democrats, particularly the party's progressive wing, according to the report.