Michelle Obama expanded upon her decision to miss President Donald Trump’s second inauguration. She elaborated on these ideas while participating in a special IMO Live podcast at the SXSW Conference and Festival in Austin, Texas, on March 13, 2025. The former First Lady got personal about her drive in an inspiring talk. She opened her talk by addressing the intense societal pressures women face when trying to make personal choices.
Earlier this month, during an episode of the “Work in Progress” podcast with actress Sophia Bush, Obama discussed her shift in mindset regarding self-prioritization. She noted that women in particular face backlash for prioritizing themselves. This theme resonated throughout her conversation with actress Taraji P. Henson on the April 23 episode of her podcast, “IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson,” which she co-hosts with her brother.
Obama also reminisced about why she boycotted Trump’s inauguration. She shared that she had to “kind of deceive” herself into not training for the race so that she could commit to her decision. She went on to describe the reason she skipped inauguration. This decision was an indicator of her general intent to serve as a positive role model to her daughters, Malia and Sasha Obama.
“My decision to skip the inauguration — you know 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,” Obama stated during her discussion. This illustrates the challenge many women experience when they try to control their own destinies in a society that frequently devalues women’s decisions for them.
Obama’s absence from significant events, such as Trump’s inauguration on January 20 and former President Jimmy Carter’s funeral a week earlier, drew public attention and speculation. Columnists and other critics wondered about her choice, even implying that there was something wrong in her marriage with former president Barack Obama. She remarked, “People couldn’t believe that I was saying no for any other reason; they had to assume that my marriage was falling apart.”
From her own experiences, Obama called on women to get comfortable saying “no” and focus on their own happiness. “I feel like it’s time for me to make some big girl decisions about my life and own it fully,” she said, reflecting on the importance of self-advocacy.
For her debut podcast, the former First Lady took us back to the time she first met Barack Obama. She told us about the time she fell in love with him. Her experiences demonstrate how vital it is for communities to be self-empowered. She’s looking forward to bringing this new message of making individual choices home to her daughters.
