Michelle Obama had to ‘trick’ herself into not attending Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration

Former First Lady of America, Michelle Obama, kicked up quite a storm of gossip when she was nowhere in sight at Donald Trump’s inauguration, even as Barack Obama attended the ceremony. Though it’s not a role, it has been fulfilled as a custom for years. Michelle’s absence was soon engulfed in loud MAGA outcries of there being trouble in her marriage, completely bypassing her obvious dislike for the 47th president. But turns out, she had to stop herself from going to Trump’s inauguration.

What further fanned the flames of the rumor mills was her subsequent absence at Jimmy Carter’s funeral – where she would have had to sit next to Trump. So far, Michelle had let the wagging tongues and toxic brains run the narrative, but now she is clearing the air by explaining that she made “the choice that was right for me.”

In the latest episode of her podcast, IMO With Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson, Michelle reflected on the public discourse around her absence.

“People couldn’t believe that I was saying no for any other reason, they had to assume that my marriage was falling apart. It took everything in my power to not do the thing that was perceived as right, but do the things that was right for me, that was a hard thing for me to do.”

For the first time in her life, Michelle wanted to follow her heart, which had no desire to attend Trump’s inauguration. She had never liked his style of leadership, especially his “demeaning” approach to women’s rights. But she also knew that customs and the worry of what her absence would reflect might push her to attend the event even if she really didn’t want to. She admitted that she had to “basically trick” herself into not falling for the trap. 

“It started with not having anything to wear. I was like, if I’m not going to do this thing, I got to tell my team, I don’t even want to have a dress ready, right? Because it’s so easy to just say let me do the right thing.”

Not having a dress ready meant that she wouldn’t be guilt-tripped by her brain to attend the event for the sake of appearances. As the First Lady, she was in the public eye; she had to do things to prove herself again and again, but now, she is learning the “art of saying no” and teaching her daughters as well as other young women that learning to live for themselves is a necessity. If she still keeps doing what she doesn’t want to do just to appease others, she fears maintaining “that crazy bar that our mothers and grandmothers set for us.”