Former Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Democrat of California, won’t attend President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration on Monday, her spokesperson confirmed to Each day Kos.
Pelosi is the second big-name Democrat to announce that they received’t attend. Earlier this week, former first woman Michelle Obama mentioned she additionally plans to skip the occasion, which is able to happen on Monday. Different Democratic lawmakers who will play hooky that day embrace Reps. Jasmine Crockett of Texas, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts.
Information of Pelosi’s pending absence was first reported by ABC Information.
Pelosi’s spokesperson didn’t elaborate on why she received’t make the pilgrimage to the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., this go-around. Her absence could also be as a result of Pelosi continues to be recovering from hip surgical procedure she underwent in Germany following a fall in December. It’s additionally potential that, like most Democrats, she simply hates Trump.
Nobody would blame her if that had been the case. The 2 have lengthy had a tumultuous skilled relationship. Since Trump’s first administration, their disdain for each other has seemingly solely elevated. Pelosi famously spent the ultimate days of Trump’s first time period attempting to oust him from the Oval Workplace after the Jan. 6, 2021, riot on the U.S. Capitol.
Trump, for his half, spent a lot of his first time period avoiding Pelosi, even because the COVID-19 pandemic ravaged states and lawmakers tried to work collectively to ship support.
Since then, Trump has known as Pelosi “crazy,” “crooked,” “evil,” and “sick,” amongst different abhorrent issues. In November, he practically known as her a bitch throughout a marketing campaign rally, although he stopped himself from saying the phrase outright.
“She’s a bad person, evil. She’s an evil, sick, crazy—” Trump mentioned at a rally in Michigan amid his 2024 marketing campaign, sounding out the letter “B” however stopping simply in need of uttering the obscenity. “It starts with a ‘B,’ but I won’t say it. I wanna say it.”
Pelosi’s inauguration absence marks a break in custom for the octogenarian. Along with attending Trump’s first inauguration, in 2017, ABC Information studies that Pelosi has gone to 11 presidential inaugural occasions.
Senior leaders of each events sometimes attend presidential inaugurations, whatever the incoming president’s social gathering. However Trump has no room to complain about Pelosi’s absence: He famously skipped President Joe Biden’s inauguration in 2021.
In actuality, Trump most likely received’t discover that Pelosi’s gone. He’ll be too busy attempting to impress his trio of tech-bro sugar daddies—Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg—who’ve been rewarded with plum seats on the inauguration. (All three males additionally donated at the least $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund.)
In the meantime, whereas they’ll attend Monday’s inauguration, former presidents George W. Bush, Invoice Clinton, and Barack Obama will skip Trump’s inaugural luncheon. Based on NBC Information, each Obama and Clinton had been invited however declined. Bush’s workplace instructed the outlet that he by no means acquired an invitation.
