Tuesday, 18 March 2025

Multiple Former Presidents Will Not Attend President Trump’s Inaugural Lunch

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NBC News reports that Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush will not attend President Trump’s traditional inaugural lunch.

The outlet said Obama declined an invitation.

Clinton does not plan to attend and Bush’s office said it was “not tracking an invitation.”

NBC News reports:

Former Secretary of State and first lady Hillary Clinton also received an invitation to the inaugural luncheon but will not attend, according to a third source familiar with the matter.

A spokesperson for Trump’s transition team did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the absences.

All three former presidents, however, will attend Trump’s swearing-in ceremony earlier in the day, according to their teams. The former first ladies will also attend the swearing-in ceremony except for Michelle Obama, according to the Obamas’ office. No reason was provided. Michelle Obama also did not attend the funeral service last week for former President Jimmy Carter, making hers the only absence among all living current and former presidents and first ladies.

Inauguration Day is one of the only occasions when all former living presidents usually congregate to usher in the next administration. Trump, however, declined to attend President Joe Biden’s inauguration in 2021.

“There’s no overstating her feelings about [Trump]. She’s not one to plaster on a pleasant face and pretend for protocol’s sake,” a source familiar with Michelle Obama’s thinking told PEOPLE.

“Michelle doesn’t do anything because it’s expected or it’s protocol or it’s tradition,” the source added.

From PEOPLE:

On Jan. 14, the former first lady’s office confirmed to PEOPLE that she would not join her husband, former President Barack Obama, at Trump’s inauguration.

Days earlier, she also missed former President Jimmy Carter’s funeral, where she would have been seated beside President-elect Trump. Her advisers attributed her unexpected absence to a scheduling conflict, stating that she was in Hawaii on an extended vacation, according to CNN’s Jeff Zeleny.

Historically, presidential funerals and inaugurations are occasions when former presidents and first ladies come together in honor of the nation’s highest office.

Trump threw a wrench in that long-standing tradition after losing his 2020 reelection bid, when he refused to attend the inauguration of his opponent, Joe Biden. Trump’s absence four years ago marked the first time since 1869 that a president refused to attend their successor’s swearing-in.

With roles reversed in 2025, Biden expressed a desire to return to normalcy, aiming to put past tensions behind him and pass the baton back to Trump in person on Jan. 20.


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