Michelle Obama Snubs Trump, Breaks Inaugural Tradition

Former First Lady Michelle Obama will break with decades of inaugural tradition by not attending President-elect Donald Trump’s January 20, 2025 inauguration, marking the second time she has been absent from a gathering of former presidents and first ladies in two weeks.

“Former President Barack Obama is confirmed to attend the 60th Inaugural Ceremonies. Former First Lady Michelle Obama will not attend the upcoming inauguration,” reads the statement shared with The Associated Press. No explanation was provided for her absence. 

At former President Jimmy Carter’s funeral on January 9 at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., former presidents Trump, Bush, Clinton, and Obama were all present. Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband attended, as did former Vice President Mike Pence and his wife. Michelle Obama’s absence from both events marks a departure from traditional protocol.

In her memoir “Becoming,” Mrs. Obama expressed her strong feelings about Trump’s “birther” conspiracy theory, writing, “Donald Trump, with his loud and reckless innuendos, was putting my family’s safety at risk. And for this, I’d never forgive him.” She described his actions as “crazy and mean-spirited” and rooted in “underlying bigotry and xenophobia.”

The upcoming inauguration will see significant attendance from former presidents and their spouses. Former President Bill Clinton will attend the swearing-in ceremony, according to a person familiar with his schedule, and her spokesperson confirmed former First Lady Hillary Clinton’s attendance. The Office of George W. Bush has confirmed that both he and former First Lady Laura Bush will be present. 

Michelle Obama’s decision carries particular significance as she had attended Trump’s first inauguration in 2017, despite personal reservations. In 2023, she revealed she “cried for 30 minutes” after that ceremony, saying she and her husband had been “holding it together for eight years without really being able to show it all.” She also spoke about the experience of sitting on the stage during Trump’s 2017 inauguration, noting there was “no diversity, there was no color on that stage, there was no reflection of the broader sense of America.” 

The inauguration’s entertainment lineup has been announced. Country music star and 2005 “American Idol” winner Carrie Underwood will perform “America the Beautiful” during the swearing-in ceremony, accompanied by the Armed Forces Choir and the United States Naval Academy Glee Club, according to a Trump-Vance Inaugural Committee spokesperson. 

Additional performers include the Village People, who have become familiar fixtures at Trump rallies with their hits “Y.M.C.A” and “Macho Man.” The group will perform at both an inaugural ball and a pre-inauguration rally in Washington D.C. Lee Greenwood and opera singer Christopher Macchio are also scheduled to participate in the inaugural festivities.

Former First Lady Melania Trump recently contrasted this transition with their first in 2017. “The difference is, I know where I will be going. I know the rooms where we will be living. I know the processes,” she told “Fox & Friends” co-host Ainsley Earhardt. “The first time was challenging. We didn’t have much of the information; the information was upheld from us from the previous administration. But this time I have everything. I have the plans. I could move in. I already packed. I already selected the furniture that needs to go in.” 

The Trumps themselves broke with tradition in 2021 when they did not attend President Biden’s inauguration, making Trump the first living president since Andrew Johnson in 1869 to skip his successor’s inauguration. 

At Carter’s recent funeral, despite their political differences, Trump and Obama were seen chatting and laughing together, demonstrating bipartisan civility amid the formal state occasion. 

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