RSVP? Democrats are split on snubbing or showing up for Donald Trump's inauguration
Donald Trump's second inauguration will be a triumphant return for a former president many believed would be permanently barred from Washington four years ago after denying his 2020 election loss.
But for Democrats and their allies, Jan. 20, 2025, is a dreaded date coming off a bruising 2024 presidential election. And they're not sure about attending the time-honored transfer of power.
"I'm not quite sure what I would be celebrating with his inauguration," Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Maryland Democrat who spearheaded some of the aggressive oversight during Trump's first term, told USA TODAY.
For Democrats who agree with Raskin, no amount of calls for returning to normalcy will persuade them to attend Trump's swearing-in ceremony.
They are making it a point to skip Trump's second inauguration for events that will underscore their values, such as celebrations around the holiday for slain civil rights icon the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., which falls on the same Monday.
"I won't pretend to normalize who or what he stands for," Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, said in an interview.
Notably, however, there are Democrats from the swing states Trump swept in November who emphasized keeping with traditions, namely showcasing the country's peaceful transfer of power.
"I'll be in attendance," said Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., who could face one of the toughest 2026 Senate battles. "And I think Georgians expect me to be."
Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., said that he also would be there, and that his attendance was never in question. "I think it’s a responsibility," said the former astronaut and finalist for Kamala Harris' 2024 running mate.
And like any event, a handful haven't filled out their calendar, including prominent lawmakers and several of the former living presidents who served before Trump and assembled in 2021 for President Joe Biden's inauguration to underscore the ceremony's importance after Trump.
"That’s a good question," Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., said when asked if he would be there come January. "I haven’t thought about it."
During the White House campaign, Trump's opponents warned that his return to power represented an existential threat to democracy that would upend the country.
There also have been deepening concerns among liberals and other opponents that Trump will extract retribution, which some of the returning president's conservative supporters dismiss as overblown.
Should Democrats skip the inauguration, as more than 60 members of Congress did in 2017, or would it be wiser for them to attend and show that after a divisive contest, America's democratic norms remain secure? After all, Trump didn't attend Biden's inauguration after the now-president defeated him in 2020.
"I've gotten sick and tired of red versus blue, Democrats versus Republicans," Donna Brazile, a longtime Democratic political strategist and former interim DNC chair, told USA TODAY.
"This is individual choices and individual, you know, opportunities. ... I'm not telling anybody what to do."
As Trump returns to Washington, political observers and historians say the attendance list for his swearing-in ceremony could be a cheat sheet of how different factions of the opposition party and other foes plan to handle his second administration.
Others say it shouldn't be looked at through a political lens at all.
Presidents club on standby as Biden embraces norms Trump didn't
Biden, who bowed out of the 2024 election in July, is keeping up with the democratic norms his predecessor broke four years ago when he opted to leave Washington directly from the White House rather than attend the inauguration for his Democratic rival in January 2021. He met with Trump for nearly two hours last month and probably will be in the front row when he watches his Republican rival take the oath.
Likewise, Harris, the incumbent vice president whom Trump defeated in all seven battleground states, will preside over the Senate when it certifies his victory on Jan. 6.
Political observers say it will be particularly noteworthy how the tight-knit club of former presidents respond to their populist-minded fraternity brother, especially given Trump has invited Chinese President Xi Jinping to his inauguration.
At the moment, it is unclear if Trump's predecessors, all of whom showed up in 2017, will be there next month.
The offices for former Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama said there were no scheduling announcements for either at the moment. Former President Bill Clinton's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A spokesperson for the Carter Center said the 100-year-old 39th president, who has been in hospice care for the past two years, will not be attending because of his health, but otherwise he would go.
"None of the other former presidents like or respect Donald Trump," said Douglas Brinkley, a renowned presidential historian and professor of history at Rice University. "They find him to be a demagogue and celebrity boor."
Brinkley said former presidents have a higher calling than other elected officials, however, and if they do attend January's ceremony, their attendance would be considered part of their larger public service to the country, as opposed to an endorsement.
Inviting the Chinese president, he said, demonstrates how Trump sees former U.S. presidents as "has-beens" politically. "He wants around him people that are powerful and kinetic at this moment, and the MAGA movement is not looking for sympathy or help from Obamas or Clintons or Bushes," Brinkley said.
Democrats choosing emphasis on MLK Day instead
Trump's inauguration falls on MLK Day, honoring the legacy and achievements of the civil rights leader who gave the famous "I Have a Dream" speech.
That alone is reason enough for some progressives to pass on joining what many will see as Trump's celebration.
"To go and to celebrate the transition of power to someone who wants to decimate everything that Martin Luther King stood for on Martin Luther King Day as a civil rights lawyer seems a little absent-minded to me, so I personally am not interested," said Crockett, who represents part of the Dallas area.
Reps. Ayanna Pressley, D-Ohio, and Judy Chu, D-Calif., cited similar reasons for not attending.
"I'll be in town with my constituents honoring Dr. King's legacy," Pressley said. "I don't think being there does that."
Several events in Washington are scheduled for the holiday, which marks its 30th anniversary next year, such as a rally against Trump planned by the Rev. Al Sharpton and the launch of the Realize the Dream initiative by Martin Luther King III, which looks to have communities to commit to 100 million hours of service before King's 100th birthday in 2029.
Other Capitol Hill Democrats are mixed on attending
Matthew Dallek, a historian and professor of political management at George Washington University, said attending or skipping the inauguration is one of the first markers of how different factions of the Democratic Party are dealing with the 2024 election gut punch.
"Because if you're not attending, you're also saying that you're probably not going to find any space or common ground on any legislation or maybe any other issue," he said.
Several other Democratic lawmakers in the Senate and House offered similarly noncommittal RSVPs, including Reps. Maxwell Frost of Florida and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, and Sens. Tim Kaine of Virginia and Tammy Duckworth of Illinois.
Raskin, who represents a Maryland district bordering Washington, D.C., served on the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack. He pointed to Trump's comments over the weekend suggesting committee members should be jailed and said he has yet to make up his mind on attending the inauguration.
"I had not gotten to that point yet," he said. "Blocked that out."
It's a tougher calculation for Democrats in swing districts or those facing tough reelections, especially because many expect one of Trump's first actions on Inauguration Day will be pardoning the Jan. 6 rioters. That act alone could make Democrats on the fence uneasy about taking part in the handoff ceremony.
Attending the inauguration, however, shouldn't be a litmus test for Democrats, said Rep. Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla.
"He's the president, got elected the majority of electoral votes, being inaugurated. I'm a member of Congress. I'm going to the inauguration. That shouldn't be abnormal," said Moskowitz, who served in Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida's administration as his emergency management czar during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Pressed further on what he thinks about colleagues boycotting, the Florida Democrat said: “You can ignore it all you want. He's still the president (for) the next four years.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Democrats divided on snubbing, attending Trump inauguration