Michelle Obama is opening up about her decision to skip President Donald Trump’s second inauguration earlier this year.
The former first lady was notably absent from the Jan. 20 ceremony and also missed former President Jimmy Carter’s funeral a week and a half earlier on Jan. 9, where she would have been seated next to Trump.
On the April 23 episode of her podcast “IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson,” which Obama co-hosts with her brother, she reflected on her absence during a candid conversation with guest Taraji P. Henson.
“My decision to skip the inauguration — you know what people don’t realize or my decision to make choices at the beginning of this year that suited me, were met with such ridicule and criticism,” she said.
“People couldn’t believe that I was saying no for any other reason, they had to assume that my marriage was falling apart,” she continued. “While I’m here really trying to own my life and intentionally practice making the choice that was right for me.”
Michelle Obama speaks on stage during IMO Live podcast 2025 SXSW Conference and Festival at Austin Convention Center, on March 13, 2025, in Austin, Texas.
Marcus Ingram/Getty Images, FILE
She added, “It took everything in my power to not do the thing that was perceived as right, but do the things that [were] for me — that was a hard thing for me to do.”
To help herself follow through, Obama admitted she had to “basically trick” herself by refusing to prepare for the event.
“It started with not having anything to wear,” she said. “I mean, I had affirmatively — because I am always prepared for any funeral, anything. I walk around with the right dress, I travel with clothes just in case something pops off. So I was like, if I am not going to do this thing, I got to tell my team, I don’t even want to have a dress ready.”
“Because it’s so easy to just say, ‘Let me do the right thing,'” she added.
In this Jan. 20, 2017, file photo, First Lady Michelle Obama greets President elect Donald Trump as they arrive for the beginning of the swearing-in ceremony in front of the Capitol in Washington, D.C.
Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images, FILE
The former first lady also shared that part of her motivation was to set an example for her daughters Malia Obama, 26, and Sasha Obama, 23, whom she shares with her husband, former President Barack Obama.
“I want them to start practicing now the art of saying ‘no,'” she said. “Because I see it in them, pleasing, excelling, not wanting to take anything for granted, always showing gratitude, feeling like they’re enough right now, right? It’s a practice. It’s a muscle that you have to build, because if you don’t constantly build it, you don’t develop it.”
Obama previously spoke about her shift in mindset earlier this month during an episode of the “Work in Progress” podcast with Sophia Bush, where she emphasized how women are often criticized for prioritizing their own needs.
“So much so that this year, people were — they couldn’t even fathom that I was making a choice for myself, that they had to assume that my husband and I are divorcing,” she said at the time.
“This couldn’t be a grown woman just making a set of decisions for herself, right? But that’s what society does to us. We start actually finally going, ‘What am I doing? Who am I doing this for?'” she continued. “And if it doesn’t fit into the sort of stereotype of what people think we should do, then it gets labeled as something negative and horrible.”
She added, “I feel like it’s time for me to make some big girl decisions about my life and own it fully.”
