Former President Barack Obama harshly criticized President Trump and Republicans in an Ohio rally Saturday, his first appearance at a midterm rally with less than two weeks until Election Day.

He appeared alongside Democratic gubernatorial candidate Amy Acton and Senate candidate Sherrod Brown, both of whom are in neck-and-neck races. Brown’s face-off against incumbent Jon Husted, a Republican, could decide the balance of power in the Senate.

In a roughly 40-minute appearance, Obama cast Trump as responsible for high prices given his decision to wage war in Iran.

“This is the reason why the price of oil is up,” Obama said. “Nobody disputes that.”Obama’s comments are particularly notable given that he has largely been circumspect in his criticism of Trump while in office.

At the Ohio rally, Obama also lambasted Trump’s continuing plans to build a ballroom in the White House and his redecoration of the building.

“There’s gold everywhere, what’s up with the gold?”Obama said. “He’s got the White House looking like Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory.”

Trump, asked earlier Saturday about criticism from former presidents Obama and Bill Clinton, said the two are “critical because we’ve beaten them.”“Obama was a lousy president,” Trump said. “Clinton was not bad, but he got caught up in a lot of scandals. Outside of the scandals, he would have been a good president,” he added.

Trump has loomed large over the 2026 midterm elections despite not being a candidate. Democrats have repeatedly invoked his name on the campaign trail as a boogeyman, blaming him for high costs and policy missteps, while Trump has told supporters to “pretend I’m on the ballot” in an effort to mobilize Republican voters.

Obama’s remarks mirrored Democrats’ strongest attack lines against Republicans as they seek to flip control of both congressional chambers. Democrats have blamed Republicans for high costs, pointing to tariffs instituted by the Trump administration and the war in Iran. They’ve also characterized Trump as corrupt and focused on dealmaking for his family.

“Now, there is one thing he seems to focus on, in addition to home renovation,” Obama said. “And that’s how to enrich himself, and his family, and his cronies.”Democrats have highlighted allegations of corruption in the closing weeks of the campaign, pointing to the extraordinary growth of Trump’s wealth since he took office, including earning $1.4 billion last year from crypto ventures. They have promised to launch investigations into his efforts to get large companies to cut checks for projects such as his White House ballroom, his decision to accept a gifted luxury jet from Qatar, and his pardon of Changpeng Zhao, the founder of the crypto exchange Binance.

The White House has said Trump is focused on rooting out fraud and makes decisions in the best interest of Americans. When asked about corruption concerns earlier Saturday, Trump told reporters that Democrats were responsible for “the real corruption.”The rally caps a week of controversy in Ohio’s gubernatorial race. Earlier this week, Acton’s opponent Vivek Ramaswamy, a Republican, took responsibility for an attack ad in which Acton’s estranged mother called her a liar and unfit for office. Amy Acton has said her mother’s husband sexually abused her, and she and her mother have been estranged since she was a child. Some Republicans, including the state’s current governor, criticized the ad as troubling.