Michelle Obama Isn’t Sick — She Just Hates Trump

Michelle Obama did not love Trump’s first inauguration and will not be at the second one. Photo: Pat Benic/Bloomberg/Getty Images

The state funeral for Jimmy Carter was attended by all five living presidents and their spouses — except Michelle Obama. Though CNN reported that the former First Lady missed the January 9 memorial due to a scheduling conflict, searches for “is Michelle Obama sick” spiked on Google.

And when the Obamas announced last week that Michelle would not attend the second Trump inauguration, people started speculating that they were headed for divorce.

Thankfully, it does not appear that Michelle is ill or having marital troubles. Judging from the available evidence, she just really hates Donald Trump.

The statement from the Obamas’ office on January 14, which was shared with the Associated Press, said: “Former president Barack Obama is confirmed to attend the 60th Inaugural Ceremonies. Former First Lady Michelle Obama will not attend the upcoming inauguration.”

Sure enough, Barack Obama was flying solo at Trump’s swearing-in on Monday:

Meanwhile Michelle posted this message on Instagram — which could be a subtweet aimed at Trump, or just an earnest celebration of MLK Day, which also happened to fall on Monday:

No reason was given for Michelle’s absence from Trump’s swearing in, nor did the Obamas say why she skipped Carter’s funeral. Earlier this month an Obama spokesperson merely confirmed in a statement to The Hill that she was “not in attendance” adding, “Mrs. Obama sends her thoughts and prayers to the Carter family, and everyone who loved and learned from the remarkable former president.”

Is it possible that something more serious is going on? Sure. But no PR team wants a repeat of last year’s Kate Middleton debacle, and there’s no real reason to think that. There is, however, ample evidence that Michelle Obama has had it with pretending she doesn’t dislike Trump.

She had a hard time concealing her discomfort at Trump’s first inauguration. This photo of Michelle making an awkward face while receiving a gift from Melania Trump went viral on Inauguration Day 2017:

In fact, “Throughout the day, Mrs. Obama’s face was the barometer for most of America’s feelings,” as Trevor Noah put it on The Daily Show.

Obama explained her exasperated looks in her 2018 memoir, Becoming. “Sitting on the inaugural stage in front of the U.S. Capitol for the third time, I worked to contain my emotions,” she wrote. However, after surveying the crowd of Trumpworld figures that surrounded her, she gave up. Though the “optics” might have been bad, “I stopped even trying to smile,” she said.

She recalled her terrible inauguration experience again during an episode of her podcast in 2023, saying she was “uncontrollably sobbing” by the end of the day. “Many people took pictures of me and they’re like, ‘You weren’t in a good mood?’ No, I was not! But you had to hold it together like you do for eight years.”

Eight years later, Obama went after Trump by name while campaigning for Kamala Harris. In her Democratic National Convention speech, she accused Trump of doing “everything in his power to make people fear” her and Barack because he felt “threatened” by “two hardworking, highly educated, successful people who happen to be Black.” Then she dropped the memorable jab, “Who’s going to tell him that the job he’s currently seeking might just be one of those ‘Black jobs’?”

Obviously, the Ex-Presidents Club is full of people who have said terrible things about each other. That did not prevent Barack Obama from yukking it up with Trump at the Carter funeral. But had Michelle attended, the task of chatting with Trump would have fallen to her, as she would have been seated next to him. She is not a professional politician, and it seems her willingness to engage in fake niceties with the Trumps has only waned over the years. Her rumored excuse for skipping the funeral wasn’t even very good. CNN’s Jeff Zeleny reported that she was “still in Hawaii on an extended holiday vacation.”

Several anonymous Michelle Obama “allies” told The Hill that her decision was all about 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, Michelle Obama is “saving some credibility,” one longtime aide to her said. 

“She campaigned the hardest against him personally, of anyone,” the aide said.

And a “source familiar with her thinking” told People that she “did all the public good that she could for eight years as first lady.” Now we’ll see her when she has a project or cause to promote, “but she doesn’t feel the need to be a public figure anymore.”

“There’s no overstating her feelings about [Trump]. She’s not one to plaster on a pleasant face and pretend for protocol’s sake,” the source added. “Michelle doesn’t do anything because it’s expected or it’s protocol or it’s tradition.”

So who was there to supply meme-able looks on Monday with Michelle sitting this one out? Another former First Lady came through:

This post was updated after Trump’s second inauguration.