Former First Lady Michelle Obama will skip the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump, the second time in two weeks that she is not attending a gathering of former U.S. leaders and their spouses.
Former Presidents Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, and George W Bush will be there.
Laura Bush and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will join their husbands for the January 20 swearing-in ceremony at the Capitol, representatives said.
“Former President Barack Obama is confirmed to attend the 60th Inaugural Ceremonies. Former first lady Michelle Obama will not attend the upcoming inauguration,” said a statement from the Office of Barack and Michelle Obama.
No explanation was given for why Michelle Obama was skipping Trump’s inauguration. She was the only spouse of a former president absent from Jimmy Carter’s funeral last week at Washington National Cathedral, due to an extended stay in Hawaii. Her husband and Trump, who was joined by Melania, were seated next to each other in her absence, and chatted and laughed like old friends despite their history of political animosity.
Former presidents Bush and Clinton and their spouses attended the ceremony.
Trump admitted that he was surprised at “how friendly” his conversation with Obama looked.
“It did look very friendly, I must say. I didn’t realize how friendly it looked. I saw it on your wonderful network just a little while ago before I came in,” Trump told a reporter. “And I said, ‘Boy, they look like two people who like each other.’”
“We probably do [like each other],” Trump added, according to The Daily Beast. “We have a little different philosophies, right? But we probably do, I don’t know. We just got along. But I got along with just about everybody.”
“We met backstage, as you know, before we went on,” the president-elect said. “I thought it was a beautiful service. But we all got along very well, which is good.”
All three former presidents and their wives attended Trump’s first inauguration in 2017, including Hillary Clinton, after she lost the 2016 presidential election to Trump. Carter also attended.
Trump famously didn’t attend the 2021 inauguration of President Joe Biden following the January 6 Capitol riot and his attempt to overturn the 2020 election results.
Michelle Obama has attended every inauguration since 2009, including Trump’s first inauguration in 2017.
In 2023, she spoke on her showThe Light Postcast about what it was like to sit in the audience as Trump was sworn in as president.
