Former First Lady Michelle Obama was notably absent from former President Jimmy Carter’s funeral on Thursday at the Washington National Cathedral.
While former President Barack Obama attended alongside other former presidents and first ladies, including Jill Biden, Laura Bush, Hillary Clinton, and Melania Trump, Michelle Obama did not join the gathering to pay respects.
CNN reported that Michelle Obama had “scheduling conflicts.”
“I’m told by her advisors that she has scheduling conflicts,” CNN reporter Jeff Zeleney said on the network’s coverage of the funeral. “She’s actually still in Hawaii for an extended holiday vacation.”
A spokesperson for Michelle Obama addressed her absence from Jimmy Carter’s funeral in a statement copied to DailyMail.com. “Mrs. Obama sends her thoughts and prayers to the Carter family, and everyone who loved and learned from the remarkable former President,” the statement read.
But her absence has been interpreted as an attempt to avoid another interaction with former President Donald Trump. At the funeral, Barack Obama was seated beside President-elect Trump, with the two seen sharing a brief, amicable exchange.
Social media users criticized Michelle Obama’s absence, describing it as disrespectful both to the presidency and the Carter family.
“Incredibly disrespectful, and this would be 24 hour news if Melania did this,” wrote Sara Rose on X.
Some praised Michelle Obama’s absence as a deliberate move to avoid Trump.
“Michelle Obama must’ve found out the seating arrangements and said nah I’m gonna stay in Hawaii,” social media user Wu Tang Kids wrote.
“Good for her!!!! Black women have clocked OUT and I’m here for it!!!!,” wrote journalist Terrance Omar.
Her last public encounter with Trump was at former President George H.W. Bush’s funeral in 2018.
At that funeral, the Obamas were seated between then-President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump, and the Clintons. Michelle Obama made headlines for an awkward handshake with Trump, notably looking away afterward.
The former First Lady has been vocal about her disdain for Trump, stating she would never forgive him for promoting the 2015 “birther” conspiracy against her husband, Barack Obama.
“Donald Trump, with his loud and reckless innuendos, was putting my family’s safety at risk. And for this, I’d never forgive him,” she wrote in her book Becoming.
