Former President Barack Obama took to the campaign trail on Saturday, 24 October, accusing President Donald Trump of corruption and urging voters to treat the 3 November midterm elections as a "circuit breaker" to rein in his presidency — while Trump spent the same day stumping for Republicans in Georgia.
Obama campaigned in Cleveland and Detroit, ten days out from elections that will determine control of a closely divided Congress. Trump has been telling voters to view the midterms as if he were on the ballot — and on Saturday, Obama did just that.
"We got to flip that circuit breaker, bring some accountability to this government," Obama said in Michigan, where he was campaigning for US Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed.
"Never seen a president excel in straight-up grifting"
Obama framed the vote as a check on what he called the corruption of the Trump administration, lampooning the president's strategy on Iran and the gilded aesthetic he has applied to White House renovations.
"We have never seen a president excel in straight-up grifting, on your dime, like this," Obama said. "Never seen a president so intent on selling favors like this... Now the party seems to stand for corrupt government, or inept government, or no government."
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Obama remains one of the most popular figures among Democrats, and the party hopes his presence on the trail can fire up supporters for tight races. In Michigan, El-Sayed faces Republican Mike Rogers, a former US representative, in a Senate contest that could help decide control of the chamber.
The numbers behind the charge
A Reuters/Ipsos poll in August found that 63% of Americans think the president and his family have inappropriately profited from cryptocurrency since he returned to the White House last year, and that 69% believe his policy decisions are influenced by his private business dealings.
Obama also derided Trump's strategy for Iran, days after the president floated another round of strikes at a rally in Florida on 23 October and his envoy suggested an attack could come "this weekend."
Trump fires back in Georgia
Trump spent Saturday in Perry, Georgia, stumping for Representative Mike Collins, who is running to unseat Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff, and for Rick Jackson, who is running for governor against former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance-Bottoms.
Trump blasted Ossoff as a "far-left extremist," accusing him of voting for policies he said brought about inflation and record-high illegal immigration during the Biden administration.
"Jon Ossoff is a far-left extremist that votes to destroy everything Georgia values," Trump said as the crowd booed.
He also announced that German automaker Audi plans to invest $4.2 billion in a plant in nearby Macon, Georgia, saying construction would begin next month on a facility that will produce 200,000 cars a year and bring thousands of jobs to the state.
Ossoff, widely seen as a leading contender for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2028, leads Collins by eight points, 48% to 40%, with 12% undecided, according to the latest AJC poll.
A $400 million midterm war chest
Trump has also said he intends to commit more than $400 million to support Republican candidates ahead of the midterms, writing on Truth Social that more than $300 million had already gone toward advertising, voter outreach, rallies, telerallies, get-out-the-vote efforts and election integrity initiatives. He called the 3 November vote the most significant midterm election in the nation's history.
Why it matters
With control of Congress on the line, both parties have now put their biggest names on the trail: a former president accusing the sitting president of selling favors, and a sitting president promising jobs and attacking his rival as an extremist. The duelling rallies in Michigan, Ohio and Georgia show a midterm campaign that is, in practice, a referendum on Trump himself — exactly as he asked voters to treat it.
Reporting based on Reuters, the New York Post, the Associated Press and The Munich Eye.