Michelle Obama Says Skipping President Trump’s Inauguration ‘Was the Choice That Was Right for Me’

On the April 23 episode of her podcast, IMO With Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson, Michelle Obama spoke for the first time about her absence at President Donald Trump’s second inauguration earlier this year.

The former first lady told her guest Taraji P. Henson that the decision wasn’t made lightly. “I’m here really trying to own my life and intentionally practice making the choice that was right for me,” she said. “And it took everything in my power to not do the thing that was right, or was perceived as right, but do the thing that was right for me.”

Obama shared that she deliberately avoided preparing for the event as a way to hold herself to the decision. “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,’” she explained. “Because it’s so easy to just say, ‘Let me do the right thing.’”

Public speculation surrounding her absence only underscored the pressures she continues to navigate in the public eye. “My decision to skip the inauguration, 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, that they had to assume that my marriage was falling apart, you know.”

Obama emphasized in her conversation with Henson the power of setting boundaries and saying no. “It’s a muscle that you have to build,” Obama said. “And I think we suffered, because it’s almost like we started training late in life to build that muscle, right? I am just now starting to build it.”

Since leaving the White House in 2017, Obama has opened up about prioritizing her mental health and self-care. She noted on the podcast, “We made it through. We got out alive. I hope we made the country proud. My girls, thank God, are whole. But what happened to me? Going through therapy is getting me to look at the fact that maybe, maybe finally I’m good enough.”

You can listen to the full conversation on IMO With Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson here.