Cheesecake Factory’s former design VP criticizes Obama’s joke

The Cheesecake Factory is firing back after former President Barack Obama used the restaurant in a punchline, as you heard, to criticize President Trump's White House renovations. So here's a listen at how this all began. There's gold everywhere. What's up with the gold? You got the White House looking like Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory. Part of his speech was to say, isn't it terrible that Donald Trump spends a lot of his time, very little time, I do it very good, I'm really good at real estate and fixing things. Donald Trump spends a lot of his time fixing up the White House. Isn't that a nice thing to do? And the Cheesecake Factory's former vice president of design, however, did not find the former president's comparison amusing at all. Yeah, in an interview with CNN, Rick McCormick called the joke, quote, a little bit sad that the pettiness of politics would create that soundbite. McCormick helped design some of the company's first restaurants as a contractor before joining the business full time. He went on to credit David Overton, who opened the first Cheesecake Factory in 1978 in California, for creating the aesthetic for which the company is still known. No such thing, Elise, as bad publicity. Well, there's that. It's 6.37.