Michelle Obama didn’t love Trump’s first inauguration and won’t be at the second.
Photograph: Pat Benic/Bloomberg/Getty Photographs
The state funeral for Jimmy Carter was attended by all 5 dwelling presidents and their spouses — besides Michelle Obama. Although CNN reported that the previous First Girl missed the January 9 memorial because of a scheduling battle, searches for “is Michelle Obama sick” spiked on Google.
Fortunately, it doesn’t seem that’s the case. The Obamas introduced on Tuesday that Michelle won’t attend the second Trump inauguration this upcoming Monday, January 20. And judging from the obtainable proof, the difficulty isn’t that she’s in poor health — it’s that she actually hates Donald Trump.
The assertion from the Obamas’ workplace, which was shared with the Related Press, reads: “Former president Barack Obama is confirmed to attend the sixtieth Inaugural Ceremonies. Former First Girl Michelle Obama won’t attend the upcoming inauguration.”
No cause was given for Michelle’s absence from Trump’s swearing in, nor did the Obamas say why she skipped Carter’s funeral. Final week an Obama spokesperson merely confirmed in a press release to The Hill that she was “not in attendance” including, “Mrs. Obama sends her ideas and prayers to the Carter household, and everybody who beloved and realized from the exceptional former president.”
Is it potential that one thing extra severe is occurring? Positive. However no PR crew desires a repeat of final yr’s Kate Middleton debacle, and there’s no actual cause to suppose that. There may be, nonetheless, ample proof that Michelle Obama has had it with pretending she doesn’t dislike Trump.
She had a tough time concealing her discomfort at Trump’s first inauguration. This picture of Michelle making an awkward face whereas receiving a present from Melania Trump went viral on Inauguration Day 2017:
The truth is, “All through the day, Mrs. Obama’s face was the barometer for many of America’s emotions,” as Trevor Noah put it on The Day by day Present.
Obama defined her exasperated appears to be like in her 2018 memoir, Turning into. “Sitting on the inaugural stage in entrance of the U.S. Capitol for the third time, I labored to comprise my feelings,” she wrote. Nonetheless, after surveying the group of Trumpworld figures that surrounded her, she gave up. Although the “optics” might need been dangerous, “I finished even making an attempt to smile,” she stated.
She recalled her horrible inauguration expertise once more throughout an episode of her podcast in 2023, saying she was “uncontrollably sobbing” by the tip of the day. “Many individuals took photos of me they usually’re like, ‘You weren’t in a great temper?’ No, I used to be not! However you needed to maintain it collectively such as you do for eight years.”
Eight years later, Obama went after Trump by title whereas campaigning for Kamala Harris. In her Democratic Nationwide Conference speech, she accused Trump of doing “every part in his energy to make folks worry” her and Barack as a result of he felt “threatened” by “two hardworking, extremely educated, profitable individuals who occur to be Black.” Then she dropped the memorable jab, “Who’s going to inform him that the job he’s at the moment in search of may simply be a kind of ‘Black jobs’?”
Clearly, the Ex-Presidents Membership is full of people that have stated horrible issues about one another. That didn’t forestall Barack Obama from yukking it up with Trump on the Carter funeral. However had Michelle attended, the duty of chatting with Trump would have fallen to her, as she would have been seated subsequent to him. She will not be an expert politician, and it appears her willingness to have interaction in pretend niceties with the Trumps has solely waned through the years. Her rumored excuse for skipping the funeral wasn’t even excellent. CNN’s Jeff Zeleny reported that she was “nonetheless in Hawaii on an prolonged vacation trip.”
A number of nameless Michelle Obama “allies” instructed The Hill that her determination was all about Trump:
“She meant each phrase she stated on the marketing campaign path with each fiber of her being,” one ally stated. “And he or she’s no hypocrite.”
By not attending the inauguration, Michelle Obama is “saving some credibility,” one longtime aide to her stated.
“She campaigned the toughest towards him personally, of anybody,” the aide stated.
So, who can we glance to for meme-able appears to be like on Monday with Michelle sitting this one out? Her pal George W. Bush might be our greatest wager. He confirmed that he’ll attend Trump’s swearing in — together with Laura Bush, Invoice Clinton, and Hillary Clinton — and he famously summed up Trump’s first Inaugural Handle as, “That was some bizarre shit.”
This publish has been up to date.
