CNBC and others reported that the world’s first, second, and third richest people, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, will attend the inauguration ceremony of President-elect Donald Trump. First Lady Michelle, who has negative feelings toward President-elect Trump after he spread a conspiracy theory about former President-elect Barack Obama’s birthplace, announced that she would unusually not attend the inauguration ceremony.
According to officials at the presidential inauguration ceremony on the 14th (local time), Musk, Bezos, and Zuckerberg plan to attend the inauguration ceremony and sit on the podium, the head seat, along with cabinet nominees, CNBC reported. In particular, Zuckerberg, who has recently taken a ‘pro-Trump’ stance, is attracting attention as he is scheduled to co-host the reception ahead of the inauguration ball on the evening of the 20th with Miriam Adelson, a large Republican donor. NBC analyzed, “The reason leaders in the technology field are pushing back against Trump is because there are significant risks to Trump’s second term, such as tax and trade policies and the possibility of changes in the technology industry.”
Meanwhile, First Lady Michelle Obama announced that she would not attend President-elect Trump’s inauguration ceremony. This is an unusual decision as it is an American tradition for a former president and his wife to attend the presidential inauguration ceremony. Former President Bill Clinton, his wife Hillary, and former President George W. Bush and his wife are scheduled to attend.
Although Ms. Michelle did not explain the reason for her absence, the Washington Post reported that it may be related to her personal ill feelings toward President-elect Trump. Michelle previously did not attend former President Jimmy Carter’s funeral held last week and announced that she would not attend President-elect Trump’s inauguration ceremony. WP analyzed that she avoided meeting President-elect Trump altogether because of Michelle’s honest and blatant disdain for President-elect Trump. First Lady Michelle became a hot topic at President Trump’s first inauguration ceremony in 2017 when she was forced to stay in her seat and made several distressed expressions. In her memoir ‘Becoming’, Michelle wrote that President-elect Trump had put her family’s safety at risk by spreading birth conspiracy theories about former President Obama, and that “I will never forgive him.” He also criticized the 2017 inauguration ceremony in a later podcast interview, saying the crowd lacked diversity and “failed to reflect the broader meaning of America.”
Reporter Choi Ji-seon aurinko@donga.com
Source: www.donga.com
