Former President Barack Obama attacked the Trump administration's handling of the economy and the Iran war while campaigning for Democrats in Ohio and Michigan over the weekend, as both parties intensified their closing arguments ahead of the November 3 midterm elections that will decide control of Congress.
"This election is our last best chance to at least rein in some of the foolishness of this administration," Obama told crowds in Cleveland on Saturday. "After two years of chaos and cruelty and corruption and incompetence, the likes of which we have not seen in the modern era, you get a chance to say, 'enough is enough.'"
Dueling messages on the economy
Obama rallied for Sherrod Brown, who is seeking to unseat Republican Senator Jon Husted, and for Amy Acton, the Democratic candidate for Ohio governor running against Republican Vivek Ramaswamy. He argued that voters frustrated with inflation under the previous administration had been let down again: "If you thought everything was too expensive before 'you know who,' everything is more expensive now."
President Trump, campaigning in Georgia for Republican candidate Mike Collins, defended his record on tariffs and oil prices, telling supporters "we're in the golden age of America" and that his administration was "taking in massive amounts of money through tariffs." He repeated a pledge to send every adult American a $5,000 payout if Republicans win control of both the House and Senate, while acknowledging that gas prices remained "temporarily high" amid the ongoing conflict involving Iran.
A campaign ad controversy in Ohio
The Ohio governor's race turned bitter after Ramaswamy's campaign ran an advertisement featuring Acton's estranged mother accusing her of lying — an ad that did not disclose that the mother's husband had been charged with raping Acton when she was a child. Obama called the spot one of the lowest moments of the campaign: "In recent days, we've seen there is no line he will not cross." Acton told rally-goers Ramaswamy had "chosen to exploit my childhood" to "save his struggling campaign."
The exchange was one flashpoint in a midterm cycle that has also been shaped by a wave of AI-generated campaign ads, which BBC Verify has tracked across dozens of races, and by an unusually blunt exchange over immigration: Trump told a crowd he had once asked senators, using a slur, why the U.S. couldn't accept more immigrants from Norway or Sweden instead of countries he described as "terror-infested."
What's on the ballot
Early voting is already underway nationwide, and Trump cast his own ballot in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Saturday alongside First Lady Melania Trump. A BBC analysis of the current Congress notes the races will determine not just which party holds the majority but how much latitude Trump has to pursue his agenda for the remainder of his term. One of the most closely watched contests, in Michigan, drew its own celebrity moment this weekend when rapper Nicki Minaj joined Trump onstage — a sign of how both parties are leaning on star power to turn out voters in a race another newsroom followed closely from the Michigan side of the fight, where Trump answered Obama's Detroit rally a day later.
