Michelle Obama signals she’s done with Trump
Michelle Obama is done with President-elect Trump, if her decision to skip next week's inauguration means anything.
The former first lady, who once called on Democrats to go high when Trump’s Republican Party goes low, will not be going to the Capitol to watch Trump take the presidential oath for a second time, leaving her husband, former President Obama, to go it alone.
Longtime allies of the former first lady say she is sending a powerful statement by skipping the event.
They say she wants nothing to do with a man undeserving of the presidency and is making no effort to hide her disdain for Trump.
“She meant every word she said on the campaign trail with every fiber of her being,” one ally said. “And she's no hypocrite.”
By not attending the inauguration, the former first lady is “saving some credibility,” one longtime aide to Michelle Obama said.
“She campaigned the hardest against him personally, of anyone,” the aide said.
While she will be the only former first lady not in attendance at Trump’s inauguration, allies say that trend broke during the last inauguration, when Trump and former first lady Melania Trump did not attend President Biden’s ceremony.
“And no one took issue with that,” a second ally said. “So why is this a big deal? The chain has already been broken.”
A statement from the Obamas’ office would not say why the former first lady would not be attending the inauguration. It simply said the former president is “confirmed to attend the 60th Inaugural Ceremonies” while saying Michelle Obama “will not attend the upcoming inauguration.”
The decision not to attend leaves her husband out to dry, or at least appears to after he was seen on camera laughing with Trump ahead of former President Carter's funeral last week. Michelle Obama, who would have been seated next to Trump, also skipped that event because of an apparent “scheduling conflict.”
A number of Democrats weren’t happy with former President Obama laughing with Trump, and some will like the sense that the first lady is giving a decidedly different and cooler signal.
“Look, he can’t stand the guy, but he knows how to turn it on and be cordial,” the second ally said. “He was being polite at a funeral.”
Still, the second ally said, “And I’ll bet he got some s‑‑‑ from [Michelle Obama] about it.”
Asked about the moment in a Fox News interview last week, Trump acknowledged it “did look very friendly. “… I said, ‘Boy, they look like two people that like each other.’ And we probably do.”
At the Democratic National Convention last summer, the former first lady was relentless in her criticism of Trump. “For years, Donald Trump did everything in his power to try to make people fear us,” she said. “See, his limited, narrow view of the world made him feel threatened by the existence of two hard-working, highly educated, successful people who happen to be Black.”
On the campaign trail last year, Michelle Obama repeatedly slammed Trump’s character and blasted him for having “gross incompetence.”
“In any other profession or arena, Trump’s critical track record and amoral character would be embarrassing, shameful and disqualifying,” she said.
Michelle Obama is famously unhappy around politics. She routinely ranks as the most popular Democratic politician when surveys are done asking people who they would like to see run for president. But after her husband ended his second term, she repeatedly made it clear that a run for office was not in the cards because she had absolutely no interest in doing it.
“Absolutely not,” she said in a 2018 interview on the “Today" show when asked about a potential run. At the time, she was promoting her bestseller “Becoming.”
“I have never wanted to be a politician. It’s one of those things that nothing has changed in me to make me want to run for elected office.”
Not attending Trump’s inauguration, in some ways, feels consistent with that mindset.
While both Obamas attended Trump’s first inauguration in 2017, the former first lady has long shown animus toward Trump.
In “Becoming,” she slammed Trump for putting her family in danger after he falsely claimed former President Obama was born in Kenya.
“The whole thing was crazy and mean-spirited, of course, its underlying bigotry and xenophobia hardly concealed,” she wrote. “But it was also dangerous, deliberately meant to stir up the wingnuts and kooks.
“Donald Trump, with his loud and reckless innuendos, was putting my family’s safety at risk,” she added. “And for this, I’d never forgive him.”