All three former Presidents and their wives attended Trump’s first inauguration in 2017. File.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Former first lady Michelle Obama will skip the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump, the second time in two weeks that she is not attending a gathering of former U.S. leaders and their spouses, but former Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton will be there.

Laura Bush and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will join their husbands for the Jan. 20 swearing-in ceremony at the Capitol, representatives said.

“Former President Barack Obama is confirmed to attend the 60th Inaugural Ceremonies. Former first lady Michelle Obama will not attend the upcoming inauguration,” said a statement from the Office of Barack and Michelle Obama that was shared with The Associated Press.

No explanation was given for why Michelle Obama was skipping Trump’s inauguration. She also did not attend former President Jimmy Carter’s state funeral in Washington last week. Former Presidents Trump, Obama, Bush and Clinton and their spouses attended — except for her.

Bill Clinton will attend Trump’s swearing-in ceremony, a person familiar with the former president’s schedule confirmed for the AP. Hillary Clinton will also attend, a spokesperson said.

The Office of George W. Bush said he and former first lady Laura Bush are also attending.

Michelle Obama was the only spouse absent at last week’s funeral service at Washington National Cathedral, where her husband and Trump were seated next to each other and chatted and laughed like old friends despite the history of political animosity between the Democratic former president and the returning Republican.

The former first lady campaigned against Trump during his 2016, 2020 and 2024 presidential campaigns. In her 2018 memoir, she described her shock upon learning that Trump would succeed her husband, and she denounced Trump’s “birther” campaign, which questioned Barack Obama’s citizenship.

Michelle Obama campaigned last fall for Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, delivering an emotional speech in Michigan in which she challenged men to vote for the vice president and argued that women’s lives would be at risk if Trump returned to the White House.

All three former Presidents and their wives attended Trump’s first inauguration in 2017, including Hillary Clinton, after she lost the 2016 presidential election to Trump. Carter also attended.

Democratic presidential nominee U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris and former U.S. first lady Michelle Obama gesture as they attend a campaign event for Harris at Wings Event Center in Kalamazoo, Michigan, on Saturday.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

In an emotional speech in Kalamazoo, Michigan, on Saturday evening, former U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama called on men, undecided voters and those planning to sit up the election to vote for Vice President and Democratic candidate for the White House, Kamala Harris, warning them about the stark consequences of voting for her Republican opponent, Donald Trump.

Ms. Obama addressed a packed stadium prior to Ms. Harris’s speech at the Wings Event Centre in the city of just over 70,000 residents in the crucial midwestern battleground state.

Specifically addressing men, the former first lady described in vivid detail the consequences of tightening restrictions on reproductive rights, as she warned men that there would be a general decline in women’s reproductive health, causing a range of consequences, from women bleeding to death during childbirth to their mothers and sisters being affected by undetected cervical cancer.

Mr. Trump had boasted that, through his appointment of three Supreme Court justices, he was responsible for overturning Roe versus Wade, which broadly protected a woman’s right to an abortion. Following the overturning of this legal precedent by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2022, a number of States have enacted or attempted to enact or have contemplated laws tightening access to not just abortions but in vitro fertilization (IVF) and contraceptives. Doctors and those helping a woman obtain an abortion could face criminal liability and jail time.

“This will not just affect women; it will affect you and your sons,” said Ms. Obama, directly addressing male voters.

“And look, I don’t expect any man to fully grasp how vulnerable this makes us feel or to understand the complexities of our reproductive health experiences. In all honesty, most of us as women don’t fully understand the breadth and depth of our own reproductive lives,” she added. Ms. Obama attributed this knowledge gap to a lack of research funding for women’s health.

“Because a vote for him is a vote against us. Against our health, against our worth.” she said, tearing up.

Ms. Obama said she wondered how the race could be so close, arguing that Ms. Harris was ready for the moment.

The former First Lady also wondered aloud why Ms. Harris was being held to a different standard from Mr. Trump. She pointed out that former Vice President Mike Pence and other former allies and Cabinet Ministers of Mr. Trump, including four-star generals, were not supporting Mr. Trump’s 2024 candidacy. Ms. Obama reminded the crowd that the former Joint Chiefs of Staff (Mark Milley) had described Mr. Trump as being “fascist to the core”.

 Ms. Obama asked why the public was “choosing to ignore Donald Trump’s gross incompetence while asking Kamala to dazzle at every turn”.

“I hope that you will forgive me if I’m a little angry that we are indifferent to his erratic behaviour, his obvious mental decline, and his history as a convicted felon. A known slum lord, a predator found liable for sexual abuse … all of this while we pick apart Kamala answers from interviews that he doesn’t even have the courage to do you all,” Ms. Obama said.

The former First Lady reminded women who lived in households where the men did not listen to or value their opinions that their vote was a private matter. “You get to choose,” she said.

Michigan is part of the ‘Blue Wall’. These are states that Democrats have traditionally won. Mr. Trump won Michigan along with Pennsylvania and Wisconsin in 2016, helping him win the White House. U.S. President Joe Biden won all three states in 2020.