Barack Obama arrived without his wife Michelle to Donald Trump’s inauguration, after it was announced that the former first lady would be skipping out on the swearing-in ceremony.
Obama, dressed in a suit and striped tie, was seen walking with a female staffer instead.
The couple’s office announced last week that Michelle would miss the inauguration, but did not offer an excuse. She was also absent from Jimmy Carter’s funeral due to a “scheduling conflict.”
The former first lady’s last high-profile political event was the Democratic National Convention in August, where she gave a speech calling Trump a racist conman.
Despite his wife’s sharp rebuke of Trump, Obama was seen seen chatting and laughing with him at Carter’s funeral on Jan. 9.
Trump later told NBC News that he “didn’t realize how friendly” the pair looked together until a video of the interaction went viral.
“I said, ‘Boy, they look like two people that like each other.’ And we probably do,” he said. “We have a little different philosophies, right? But we probably do [like each other]. I don’t know. We just got along. But I got along with just about everybody.”
Michelle, along with all other living former first ladies and presidents, attended Trump’s first inauguration in 2017. All other former first couples, except for her, are in attendance at Trump’s second swearing-in ceremony.
Read it at Page Six
