Michelle Obama Declines to Attend Trump’s Inauguration, Breaking Longstanding Tradition

Former First Lady Michelle Obama will not attend Donald Trump’s inauguration next week, her office confirmed Tuesday without offering an explanation.

The announcement marks a significant break from the tradition of bipartisan attendance by former presidents and their spouses at presidential swearing-in ceremonies.

“Former President Barack Obama is confirmed to attend the 60th Inaugural Ceremonies. Former First Lady Michelle Obama will not attend the upcoming inauguration,” the Office of Barack and Michelle Obama stated.

In contrast, former President George W. Bush and Laura Bush have confirmed they will attend the event, and sources familiar with the matter told CNN that former President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton are also planning to be present.

The absence of Michelle Obama from the ceremony adds a notable omission to a gathering where bipartisan unity is traditionally on display.

Michelle Obama’s decision follows her recent absence from another high-profile event. Last week, she did not attend the memorial service for former President Jimmy Carter, choosing instead to remain in Hawaii.

Barack Obama, however, attended the service at the National Cathedral in Washington, where he sat beside Donald Trump and engaged in brief, animated conversation before the program began. Other former first ladies, including Hillary Clinton and Laura Bush, attended the service, adding to Michelle Obama’s notable absence.

The former first lady has openly expressed her disdain for Donald Trump, accusing him of putting her family’s safety at risk with his divisive rhetoric.

In her memoir and interviews, Michelle Obama has described how Trump’s promotion of conspiracy theories about Barack Obama’s citizenship led to threats against her family.

Despite these personal grievances, Michelle Obama welcomed Trump and Melania Trump to the White House for tea before his first inauguration in 2017. She later spoke about the emotional toll of attending that event.

“There were tears, emotions. Sitting on that stage and watching the opposite of what we represented—no diversity, no color, no reflection of broader America—was hard,” she recalled in a 2023 podcast.

This year’s inauguration is not the only instance of former presidents and first ladies breaking with tradition. In 2021, Donald and Melania Trump declined to attend Joe Biden’s inauguration, making them the first outgoing president and first lady to skip a successor’s ceremony in over 150 years.

The absence followed Trump’s continued false claims that he won the 2020 election, further fueling political division.

Michelle Obama’s decision to forgo Trump’s swearing-in underscores the heightened partisanship surrounding such events in recent years.

As inaugural ceremonies have traditionally symbolized peaceful transitions of power, the absence of key figures like Michelle Obama adds to the shifting norms of modern political decorum.