STOLEN CHEESECAKE VALOR

MAGA’s Favorite Sports Guy Caught Lying About Cheesecake Factory Memories

Clay Travis is unraveling after being exposed for fabricating his childhood nostalgia at The Cheesecake Factory.

Fox News’ resident sports commentator Clay Travis has been busted for exaggerating the time he spent at The Cheesecake Factory.

Travis, 47, joined the conservative pile-on about former President Barack Obama’s comments that Donald Trump had made the White House look “like Saddam Hussein opened up a Cheesecake Factory.” Conservatives have interpreted those comments as Obama making a dig at working-class Americans, since The Cheesecake Factory is apparently the cream of the crop for a “high-end” meal out for most Americans.

Travis, who said he voted for Obama twice, said the former president’s comments personally insulted him, as he has childhood memories of dining at the chain while growing up in Nashville.

“Cheesecake Factory is far nicer, the interior, than the average person’s home in America,” Travis proclaimed.

“I’ve grown up going to Cheesecake Factory if I had the money to be able to afford it,” he asserted.

“Cheesecake Factory was a high-end place for me when I was growing up. And even into my mid-30s, Cheesecake Factory was a fancy place to go eat that my family often couldn’t afford,” he said.

Travis added that he believed that “most normal people see Cheesecake Factory as being a high-end place,” even as he admitted, “I’m not a big cheesecake guy. I don’t personally love The Cheesecake Factory.”

“Lots of other people do, but I do know it’s high-end,” he explained.

But his memories of growing up going to The Cheesecake Factory with his parents fell apart when The Bulwark learned the chain didn’t open a Nashville location until Travis was 26.

Host Tim Miller and sports reporter Pablo Torre discussed several issues with Travis’ story.

“A couple of problems with that: Clay was born in 1979, grew up in Nashville. The first Cheesecake Factory opened in his hometown in 2005, after he had graduated from The George Washington University,” Miller said. “So if he had had Cheesecake Factory growing up, certainly it was aspirational because it was him and his family on a trip to Los Angeles, where The Cheesecake Factory started.”

Torre, laughing, accused Travis of “stolen valor.”

“We are now swift-boating Clay Travis for Cheesecake Factory stolen valor,” he added.

Travis hasn’t taken being exposed for his fabrications lightly, making a series of posts online trying to defend himself and claiming that what he actually meant was that he enjoyed the restaurant when he was a young adult at age 18 living in Washington, D.C. to attend college.

“1. We had it in DC and it was expensive when I was 18. 2. When it opened in Nashville, it was still expensive,” Travis fired back on X.

“Sorry, I didn’t know the exact year it opened,” he explained. “Appreciate the investigation, guys. It’s still high end and expensive for most people. Thanks for watching.”

In a follow-up post, Travis again tried to explain his faux nostalgia, crediting it to his college-era memories.

“Neither of my parents ever made $50k a year. So sit-down restaurants were a treat. Most Americans grew up like me,” he asserted. “Cheesecake Factory is expensive and high end and you guys, and Obama, are woefully out of touch with most normal people.”

He confessed, “I’m rich now, but I wasn’t as a kid. I still remember what that’s like, it doesn’t sound like you guys do.”

When a random X user called him out for fabricating his childhood nostalgia and asked if he was being paid to discuss the conservative talking point, Travis unraveled further.

“Why would I get checks based on the Cheesecake Factory? I went to college in DC. There has been a Cheesecake Factory in DC since my college years at least,” he tried to explain.

Like Travis, Miller also went to George Washington University in D.C., which is rated the 8th most expensive college in the country, and where an average four-year bachelor’s degree, including living costs, exceeds $450,000.

“So when you said ‘growing up going to Cheesecake Factories it was a luxury,’ you meant ‘when I was a freshman in college at the most expensive university in the country it was a luxury.’ Got it thanks for clearing that up!”

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