Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) will not attend President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration, a spokesman confirmed Thursday.
The spokesperson did not provide a reason for Pelosi’s decision to skip the ceremonial event, which is slated for the U.S. Capitol on Monday. The decision was reported earlier by ABC News.
Pelosi, 84, who has retained political prominence and influence in the Democratic Party — and her seat in the House — despite giving up her longtime leadership role after Republicans won control of the House in 2022, has long had a contentious relationship with Trump.
She also broke her hip and was hospitalized while traveling with a bipartisan congressional delegation in Luxembourg last month — though she has returned to the halls of Congress since, including for the Jan. 6 confirmation of Trump’s electoral victory.
Trump did not attend the inauguration of President Biden after losing to Biden in the 2020 election. He also denied that he lost despite all evidence to the contrary — a lie he maintains to this day. He was the first president to skip the inauguration of his successor since Andrew Johnson did so in 1869.
Pelosi has called Trump “crazy” and unfit for office. Trump has called Pelosi “evil” and an “enemy” of the country. The pair have sparred for years. Pelosi raised eyebrows when she ripped up a copy of Trump’s State of the Union speech behind him in 2020. Trump infuriated the former speaker by mocking a violent attack on her husband at the couple’s San Francisco home.
Former First Lady Michelle Obama has also announced that she will not attend the inauguration, though former President Obama will, according to the Associated Press. The former first lady also has been an outspoken critic of Trump.
