Obama rebukes Ramaswamy over Acton ad and hits Trump on costs at Ohio rally

In his first rally of the 2026 midterm cycle, former President Barack Obama slammed President Donald Trump and Ohio gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, calling out the latter’s much-maligned campaign ad centering on Democrat Amy Acton’s mother.

“There's gotta be something inside you where you just say no office is worth stooping that low,” Obama said of Ramaswamy’s choice to run the ad.

With the midterms just over a week away, Obama was rallying in Cleveland in support of Acton and Democratic Senate candidate Sherrod Brown.

Trump, Obama said, had broken a slew of promises he made on the campaign trail in 2024, ensnaring the country in an ongoing war in Iran and failing to bring down costs. Instead, “he’s got the White House looking like Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory,” the former president said, taking aim at Trump’s renovations to the executive mansion.

“We got two more years of this administration,” he said. “That’s how our system of government works. But you know what we’re not stuck with? We’re not stuck with a spineless Congress and Republican governors who are enabling lawlessness and carelessness and cruelty and indifference for working people.”

Long one of Democrats' top surrogates, Obama is again stepping off the sidelines in the closing stretch of an election. He’ll appear in Detroit alongside Democrats Abdul El-Sayed and Jocelyn Benson on Sunday, after which he’ll travel to Georgia for a rally with Sen. Jon Ossoff and former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms on Oct. 28.

The former president, who captured Ohio’s electoral votes in 2008 and 2012, also called out Ramaswamy for his controversial campaign ad featuring Acton’s mother. Acton was removed from her mother’s home after her stepfather was charged with raping her. She spoke about her childhood in a speech moments before the former president took to the stage on Saturday.

“There's a decency that we should expect out of our public officials,” Obama said. “And I don't know what's happened where the standards of behavior have gotten so low that somebody could run an ad like that.”

The White House and Ramaswamy’s campaign both did not immediately respond to requests for comment.