President-elect Donald Trump’s inaugural lunch will likely be lacking three outstanding faces, with former Presidents Barack Obama, Invoice Clinton and George W. Bush all reportedly declining to attend.
Obama obtained Trump’s invitation however has declined to attend. Clinton mentioned he doesn’t plan to attend and Bush’s workplace mentioned it was not monitoring an invite for him to the occasion, in line with sources talking with NBC Information.
The standard lunch is scheduled to happen following Monday’s swearing-in ceremony, which all three former presidents have mentioned they may attend.
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Former Secretary of State and first girl Hillary Clinton, who attended Trump’s inaugural lunch after dropping to him within the 2016 election, was additionally invited to the lunch however won’t attend this yr’s, NBC additionally reported.
Former first girl Michelle Obama has additionally mentioned that she is going to skip all the day’s occasions. Although no motive was given, a number of retailers have pointed to Trump’s years-long private assaults on her and her household, and her fierce criticism of him whereas campaigning in opposition to his reelection.
Former Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi can even completely skip Trump’s inauguration, a spokesperson for her workplace informed HuffPost.
Representatives for all three former presidents, none of whom endorsed Trump’s reelection, didn’t instantly reply to HuffPost’s requests for remark Thursday.
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Although Trump has lengthy been identified for making public, private assaults and criticisms of others, cordiality between Trump and his predecessors has vastly soured within the years since he first took workplace.
Throughout Trump’s 2017 luncheon, he known as for a standing ovation for his former rival, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and her husband, saying he was very honored when he heard that they might be attending the occasion.
“I have a lot of respect for those two people,” he mentioned, earlier than happening to forecast 4 years of “peace and prosperity” beneath his administration. He reportedly tried to prosecute Hillary Clinton as soon as in workplace, in line with a 2018 report by The New York Occasions.
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The Countdown To Trump Is On
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After dropping his 2020 reelection, Trump and his spouse Melania Trump notably didn’t attend any of Joe Biden’s inauguration occasions, together with Biden’s swearing-in ceremony.
That occasion went on regardless of Trump loyalists days earlier storming the U.S. Capitol amid Trump’s ongoing insistence that the election was stolen from him.
Inaugural luncheons have been held on the U.S. Capitol for the brand new president, vice chairman and visitors since 1953, in line with the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies (JCCIC), which oversees all inaugural occasions.
