Former First Lady Michelle Obama will not attend Donald Trump’s inauguration next week, her office said Tuesday, without providing an explanation for the decision.
“Former President Barack Obama has been confirmed as a participant in the 60th Inaugural Ceremonies. Former First Lady Michelle Obama will not be attending the upcoming inauguration,” the Office of Barack and Michelle Obama said in a statement.
The decision not to attend Trump’s inauguration is a departure from the tradition of the ceremony, which usually involves former presidents and their wives. The office of former President George W. Bush and Laura Bush confirmed their attendance, and sources close to CNN said former President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton will also attend.
Michelle Obama also did not attend last week’s memorial service for former President Jimmy Carter, staying in Hawaii instead. Former President Barack Obama attended the service at the National Cathedral in Washington, where he sat next to Trump and exchanged a lively conversation with him at the beginning of the program.
Other former first ladies, including Hillary Clinton and Laura Bush, attended Carter’s event.
Michelle Obama spoke openly about her intolerance towards Trump, whom she accused of threatening her family’s safety with his rhetoric.
In 2017, she suppressed her personal feelings after Trump won the first presidential election, welcoming the president-elect and Melania Trump to the White House for tea before the then-inauguration.
In the years since, she has spoken about the experience of sitting on stage as Trump was inaugurated.
“There were tears, there were emotions. But then to sit on that stage and watch the opposite of what we represented — there was no diversity, there was no color on that stage, there was no reflection of the larger sense of America,” she said on a podcast in 2023 .
(Vijesti.ba)
