Is the Cheesecake Factory drama actually breaking through? Data suggests that it’s not the distraction that Republicans might’ve hoped it would be, with just days before the midterms.
Is the Cheesecake Factory drama actually breaking through? Data suggests that it’s not the distraction that Republicans might’ve hoped it would be, with just days before the midterms.
It’s only been three days since Barack Obama quipped that President Donald Trump has made the White House look like “Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory,” but it feels like it’s been three weeks based on all the
whining on Fox News. Even Treasury Secretary Scott Bessentdined at theCheesecake Factory this week to mock Democrats.
This nothing-burger of a scandal underscores just how desperate Republicans have become with less than a week before midterms, as they look for ways to distract away from Trump’s unpopular policies — even if it means launching a fake culture war.
Have Republicans succeeded in transforming Obama’s joke into a controversy that could hurt Democrats? As much as MAGA wishes the Cheesecake Factory drama would dominate the discourse, it hasn’t overshadowed other hot-button issues on at least one major social media platform, according to an analysis by PeakMetrics shared with
What A Day.
Since Monday morning, “Cheesecake Factory” has been mentioned nearly 200,000 times on X, according to the analysis. That number was dwarfed by other election-related phrases, such as Talarico (312,000 mentions), El-Sayed (632,000 mentions), and Iran (948,000 mentions).
Another problem with this discourse: The arguments don’t make sense. One Trumpworld operative
describedthe Cheesecake Factory as something that “everyday Americans” enjoy, not coastal elites. In reality, there’s only 23 of the chain’s restaurants in the entire Midwest,per the company’s website. Iowa, Kansas, and Nebraska each have one. California alone has 37 locations.
Also, Cheesecake Factory isn’t more common in working-class neighborhoods,
according to a recent analysis. The restaurants are often found in neighborhoods where home values are higher, putting the chain on the same level as lululemon and Sephora.
Trump isn’t helping with the “Democrats are out-of-touch” argument.
You know how Trump pledged to give Americans $5,000 checks if Republicans win the midterms? He joked about how that couldn’t cover the cost of dining at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida. “The problem is that for $5,000, the most you’ll be able to buy is a hamburger and maybe a small dessert,” he said
last night. (That’s a lot more expensive than the Cheesecake Factory, but I digress.)
While Trump boasts about how much he charges for burgers, Republicans worry that they’ll be out of work within a few days.
GOP insiders are
already resignedto the fact that they’ll probably lose the House. With each passing day, Republicans’ odds at keeping the Senate also seem to become slimmer: Even the South Carolina race — pitting late Sen. Lindsey Graham’s sister against Democrat Annie Andrews — is a tossup,according to a new poll. A Democrat hasn’t been elected to the Senate in the state since 1998.
“Even when they squint, top Republicans struggle to see a majority beyond 51 seats,” Axios
wrote today, citing several senior GOP operatives.
**If the polls are correct, I predict we’ll see many Republicans coping **with big slices of Brownie Crunch Choc-a-Lot Cheesecake next week.
** The Trump administration warned Gulf states **that they should be prepared for a brief, intense military campaign against Iran after the midterms, the
** There’s no clear winner of the Israel election yet,** as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition holds a slight lead over the bloc led by former IDF official Gadi Eisenkot. If neither politician wins a majority, there are two possible scenarios: Eisenkot could align with Arab parties to win enough support (something he has pledged not to do), or Netanyahu and Eisenkot could join together and form a unity government (Netanyahu would likely want to remain as the main leader).
** Operatives aligned with Alaska Democratic Senate nominee** Mary Peltola executed a secret plan to recruit another man named Dan Sullivan to run against the incumbent GOP senator of the same name, with the goal of causing confusion, the
** Failed right-wing Brazilian presidential candidate **Flávio Bolsonaro landed in Miami today, after the Trump administration granted him a visa. Bolsonaro, who lost in a hotly contested runoff against Lula, has pledged to challenge the election results. Brazil’s government
** Education Secretary Linda McMahon plans** to spend more than $43,000 on furniture equipment for her office, according to records reviewed by the
** The Trump administration rolled back a Biden-era rule** that aimed to slash methane emissions caused by oil and gas drilling, which is considered a planet-warming “super pollutant.” In justifying his decision, Trump told rallygoes in Texas last night that the move would unlock 210 million barrels of oil — which is only about
** On that note, a U.S. cruise ship that had been sailing** around the world for two years suspended its trip — and forced people to disembark in Cambodia — because of high fuel costs. Fuel used to cost about $1,800 per month for each cabin, according to the ship’s operator, but the war in Iran has made that number jump to $6,000 to $8,000 in parts of Asia.
** Labor leader and civil rights icon Dolores Huerta** died today after a battle with cancer. She was 96 years old.
** A federal judge ruled that Trump’s hand-picked** federal prosecutor in Los Angeles, Bill Essayli, has been “unlawfully serving” in his position. This is the guy who has been
** Which male politicians are hot in Trump’s eyes? **This quiz in the
** Life magazine is coming back to life next month,** 26 years after it stopped publishing regularly. “What made Life extraordinary was its ability to make the world feel closer,” said model Karlie Kloss, who’s backing the relaunch via her media company. “And our responsibility is to preserve and to protect that legacy.”
** Horror book sales have risen 39 percent since last year,** according to a system that tracks book sales. Reading is dead in America, you say? Well, reading
** On that note, the hottest class at Harvard is Humanities 10, **where students are assigned a dense piece of literature to read every single week. Applications to take the class (yes, there are applications) rose 40 percent this year. In total, 180 kids applied to be in a class of 90. “A lot of what we get out of this class is the human experience, and you can’t get that out of AI,” one undergrad told the
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