Former First Lady Michelle Obama will not attend President-Elect Donald Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20.
Former President Barack Obama is expected to attend the swearing-in ceremony.
“Former President Barack Obama is confirmed to attend the 60th Inaugural Ceremonies. Former First Lady Michelle Obama will not attend the upcoming inauguration,” the brief statement from the Office of Barack and Michelle Obama said.
“A spokesperson for former President George W. Bush confirmed he and former First Lady Laura Bush are planning to be at the Capitol for the festivities. Michelle Obama also did not attend funeral services for Jimmy Carter last week, where all the living former presidents congregated. The other living first ladies were also in attendance,” CBS News reported.
Since 2008, Michelle Obama has been present at every inauguration, including Trump’s first in 2017, as she and her husband were departing the White House. She talked about her experience attending Trump’s inauguration in 2023.
“To sit on that stage and watch the opposite of what we represented on display, there was no diversity, there was no color on that stage,” Obama said. “There was no reflection of the broader sense of America. Many people took pictures of me and they’re like, you weren’t in a good mood. No, I was not.”
She said on her podcast, “The Light Podcast,” that she cried for 30 minutes after the ceremony “because that’s how much we were holding it together for eight years without really being able to show it all.”
The remarks come after Trump and Barack Obama went viral last week after having a very friendly conversation at the U.S. Capitol.
Former President Jimmy Carter, who died last month at the age of 100, was remembered at a state funeral at the National Cathedral on Thursday. All living presidents attended as the country observed a day of sadness.
When Vice President Harris sat down in front of Obama and Trump, they stopped talking for a moment, but they picked up right back up seconds later.
Trump leaned in toward Obama, and Obama laughed a few times. While Obama and Trump talked, Melania Trump and Laura Bush, who used to be the first ladies, sat on either side of them and looked forward.
The Clintons talked to each other, and Bush looked like he was waving to other people there.
Harris made headlines earlier this week when she certified the 2024 election results, affirming Trump’s victory as well as her decisive defeat to him in the race for the White House.
For her part, Harris is not planning to “go quietly into the night” after she was thumped in the 2024 presidential election.
During a segment on CNN, reporter Isaac Dovere revealed that Harris privately tells backers she is considering running for governor of California in 2026 or president in 2028. Harris also reportedly does not want her “final act” to be certifying Trump’s election victory over her.
“We haven’t seen or heard much from Vice President Kamala Harris since she lost the election last month,” CNN’s Manu Raju told CNN’s viewers. “But the Democratic Party still reeling from Trump’s victory.”
Dovere said that Harris is mulling two options.
“What she’s been saying to people over the last couple of weeks, donors, other supporters that she’s been talking with, As you haven’t seen the last of me, I’m not going quietly into the night. Advisers, people close to her are debating about what that means. They do not want her final official act ever to be essentially certifying Donald Trump’s win over her, especially four years after January 6th. And so they look at this governor’s race in California in 2026, and it seems to them like a layup essentially, that she would probably clear the field or mostly clear the field and she would get to be governor of California,” Dovere said.
“But if she does that, that means that she couldn’t turn around and run for president again in 2028. She’d need to essentially declare right away. And that is what it really comes down to because there are people close to her who say she didn’t get a fair shot this year,” Dovere added.
Dovere continued, “It wasn’t it wasn’t up to what she could have done. And look how well she performed anyway. She should get to go again in 2020. And then there are ones who say, look, with where things are with the Democratic Party at it, she would not have a clear field or a cleared field, rather, in the Democratic primary and could lose the nomination. And to come off of 2024 into that would be really terrible.”
Harris allegedly told associates she was “staying in the fight” and considering a 2028 presidential campaign or a California gubernatorial run in 2026, prompting Democratic strategist Theryn Bond to urge Harris not to run for president again.
