Trump and Obama trade barbs on the campaign trail days before US midterms

US President Donald Trump and former Democratic president Barack Obama are continuing to trade barbs publicly in the final week before the US congressional midterm elections. The vote, held next Tuesday, could shift the balance of power in Washington for the last two years of Trump's term.

Thirty-five of the 100 Senate seats and all 435 seats in the House of Representatives are up for election. Nonpartisan analysts generally favor Democrats to win a House majority, while the Senate race is seen as very close.

Obama steps up

Trump has spent several weeks on an intensive campaign push, which has exposed Republican worries about losing control of Congress. Obama kept a relatively low public profile until the past week but has recently begun speaking more sharply and criticizing Trump.

At a Wednesday rally in suburban Atlanta, he said of Trump and the Republican Party: "These are not serious people," adding that everyone pays the price for their lack of seriousness. Obama again brought up Trump's gilded White House renovations. The previous week he had joked that they resembled Saddam Hussein decorating a Cheesecake Factory restaurant. According to Obama, it was this comparison that upset Trump, and a whole government response was mobilized against the joke, including the treasury secretary being told to hold a press conference in front of the restaurant.

Speaking at a rally in Ohio, Trump defended the White House decor and said Obama had left the property in a deteriorated state. He said the building cannot have broken windows or unpainted stone.

Other developments

A federal judge declined to order California election officials to segregate ballots from people the Trump administration described as non-citizens. The request had been filed by the Justice Department.

In Michigan, Jason Turkish, who is engaged to Democratic congresswoman Haley Stevens, appeared at an event for Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers and said he would vote for Rogers rather than Democrat Abdul El-Sayed.