Former First Lady Michelle Obama was conspicuously absent from President Jimmy Carter’s funeral at Washington National Cathedral last week.  Everyone else one might have expected to be in attendance was there.

Melania Trump was there, of course, though funeral services must have been hard for her, as January 9 was the first anniversary of her mother’s death.

Michelle was reportedly in Hawaii; her office simply cited a scheduling conflict.  CNN reported that she was on an “extended holiday vacation.”  Commentary swirled, but my thought was just that she had been made aware of the “seating chart” ahead of time and knew she would have been seated between her husband and incoming President Trump, someone she obviously looks upon with disdain.  That would have been enough for her to say no.  I get the impression --- and her husband probably learned this long ago --- that it’s very, very easy for Michelle to say no.  When she doesn’t give a flying fig about something, she says so.

(Aside: She likewise said no when we ALL KNOW the DNC tried to get her to run for President in 2024.  That’s the reason Democrats were stuck with Vice President Kamala Harris --- the only other black female on the party’s bench --- as their virtually unelectable candidate.  No matter how much “joy” they tried to manufacture about her campaign, it wasn’t enough to elect Kamala.  It’ll be interesting to see if the leftists who all-too-often write history don’t end up blaming Michelle for Trump winning a second term.)

Anyway, now we have the announcement that Michelle will also not attend the inauguration of President Trump on January 20.

In a statement to the Associated Press, her office said, “Former President Barack Obama is confirmed to attend the 60^th Inauguration Ceremonies.  Former First Lady Michelle Obama will not attend the upcoming inauguration.”  They did not provide a reason.  According to the NEW YORK POST, all other former Presidents and First Ladies are expected to attend. 

(It should be noted that both President Trump and Melania did not attend President Biden’s inauguration in 2020, but that was a considerably different situation, as Trump was still maintaining that Biden hadn’t really won.  That’s an even more tenable theory today.)

https://nypost.com/2025/01/14/us-news/michelle-obama-will-not-attend-donald-trumps-inauguration-after-skipping-jimmy-carters-funeral/

RELATED:  There are apparently plenty of bad feelings to go around.  Many Democrat members of Congress, notably some of the “Squad” members, have said they’re not planning to go to Trump’s inauguration.  I’m sure Trump is crying boo-hoo over that.

(According to David Jolly on MSNBC, millions of Americans will be saying Trump is “not my President.” If you recall, saying that about Obama in 2013 was racist, then saying it about Trump in 2017 was patriotic, then saying it about Biden in 2021 was treasonous, and now, saying it about Trump in 2025 is apparently patriotic again.)   

Also, Kamala reportedly declined to invite VP-elect Vance and his wife, Second Lady Usha Vance, for the traditional courtesy visit to the Vice President’s residence at the Naval Observatory before the inauguration.  With their three young children, the Vances could have benefited from a visit, just to see how their kids would be accommodated in the residence.  But a staffer reportedly refused to answer their questions. 

https://www.westernjournal.com/classless-kamala-slaps-jd-vance-wife-face-comes-vp-residence/

Vance and his wife, according to FOX NEWS’ Sean Hannity Tuesday night, “had to rely on the permanent Navy staffers who run the residence to get the answers they needed.”

…..

But there are much larger considerations about Inauguration Day than whether Kamala’s office is displaying the expected pettiness or a cranky, out-of-sorts, totally non-supportive First Lady will deign to grace the event with her presence.  The most important of all is whether or not the event will be safe for the President-elect and anyone standing anywhere near him when he takes the oath of office.  As you know, we’re highly in favor of Trump re-thinking his decision to hold a victory rally in DC the day before --- though, thankfully, it will be indoors --- and even to have an open-air inauguration, though that has been the tradition.

Times change.

Former Secret Service agent Dan Bongino has been expressing concerns about this all along, and that concern has not abated.  He notes that no one with responsibility for Trump’s protection has reached out to him about the inauguration, though he would like them to, and that he is not a part of Trump’s transition team.

He did get an update on Monday, in a public briefing by the Secret Service that led him to reluctantly conclude that the inauguration is “probably not” safe.

“I’m just afraid that the people in charge, at the top of the Secret Service, and certainly at the FBI, do not know what they’re doing.”

Bongino said he was responsible for “the most important section” of the route taken by Obama during his first inauguration, including the part where Obama was to get out of his car.  He’s saying that, given the dangers today, he would “be comfortable” with President Trump not getting out of the car at all, just foregoing the walk.

“I have not been briefed in on the security plan,” he said Tuesday.  “I wish I was.  I would like to review it myself, because I’ve done it before, and I want to see what they’re looking at.  I know exactly what it’s supposed to look like.”

His major concern is with the FBI, to whom (like us) he says he gives “zero credibility.”  An official with the FBI who is one of those responsible for the inaugural event says “they’re not tracking any threats to the inaugural ceremony or the Capitol complex.”  Really??  How could there not be threats associated with Trump’s inauguration?

It’s barely possible this official is telling the truth, but who’s to say?   Bongino believes there probably are very serious threats.  “...There’s no reason to trust the FBI when it comes to anything regarding Donald Trump,” he says, “because they’ve been on the opposite side of the truth of nearly every major scandal involving the FBI.”

The Secret Service acting director, Ron Rowe, “screwed up bad,” Bongino said, “and he needs to go.”  He’s just not qualified, based on what happened at the rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, and on Trump’s golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida.

The Secret Service official in charge of the Washington field office (WFO), Matt McCool (yes, that’s his real name), was the one conducting the briefing; Bongino knows him well and considers him highly competent.  McCool told reporters that they are in “a higher threat environment” than before and have “a slightly more robust security plan.”  They “stay flexible” because it’s “an ever-changing threat environment.”

“...We are 100 percent confident in the plan that we have put in place for the inauguration,” McCool said, “that the public and our protectees will be safe.”  So that reassured Bongino somewhat.  But he says the Secret Service should no longer be in charge of what they call NSSEs, or National Special Security Events, of which the inauguration is one.  “They should be a part of it, but they should not be in charge.”  They should be responsible for the routine protection of top-level officials, not events like this.

“If you want to keep the President and his family alive,” Bongino said, “there’s only one way to do it.  It’s to dump everything else the Secret Service does and focus on keeping him alive.  It’s not complicated.”

The most critical threat at this inauguration --- the thing that makes it different from all past inaugurations --- is DRONES.  Bongino is hearing from trusted sources that whatever plans they have for dealing with these “is not nearly as strong as they’re claiming.”  McCool said in his briefing that the Secret Service is using drones of its own for its “protective posture,” and that we shouldn’t be “alarmed” if we see them in the sky during the inauguration or in the days leading up to it.

Still, “It’s this freaking air picture,” Bongino said, “that really scares the sh** out of me.”  One thing that scares him is that so many in the Deep State still vow to resist Trump.  He cites a new story in THE DAILY SIGNAL: “Deep State Gearing Up:  Nearly Half of Federal Employees in the Swamp Plant to Resist Trump, Poll Finds.”  That’s 42 percent of government managers.  They have got to go, of course, but in the meantime, how can they be trusted to protect his life?

https://www.dailysignal.com/2025/01/13/deep-state-gearing-nearly-half-federal-employees-swamp-plan-resist-trump-poll-finds/

Reporter Susan Crabtree posted on X that the FAA “will set up temporary flight restrictions [TFRs] to other aircraft and drones for the Capitol region for inauguration day.” 

But according to Bongino, TFRs are “like four-way stop signs; they’re basically suggestions.”  Everybody has to follow the protocol, or “you’re gonna get an accident.”

It doesn’t help my confidence that Marjorie Taylor Green, flying into DC on Monday, posted on X that the pilot had announced he had to approach the airport from another direction because of “unauthorized drone activity” over the White House.

I don’t know if President Trump listens to a humble writer far from DC --- Dallas, Texas --- but I join with those who think he should NOT do the open-air inauguration at all.  If he does choose to take the oath of office outside, he should at the very least not get out of his car and do “the walk.”  Please, please don’t do it, Mr. President.  You dodged a bullet once, but this would be tempting fate every bit as much as President Kennedy riding in an OPEN CONVERTIBLE on November 22, 1963.  In Dallas.