Younger people don’t seem to realize that the past nine years of “Trumpism” has broken every political and cultural norm in American politics. All political conventional wisdom needs to be thrown out. There is no past or future, only our bitter, horrible present. People aren’t going to give a baseline respect to Donald Trump just because of the office of presidency. People aren’t going to show up just because it’s an inauguration. That’s how I feel about Michelle Obama skipping the inauguration or Kamala Harris refusing to invite the Vances to the Naval Observatory – it’s fine because everything was already broken by Donald Trump. Still, in Michelle’s case, her absence from both Jimmy Carter’s funeral and the upcoming inauguration has caused some other gossip to fester – rumors about the state of her marriage, health rumors and more. So a “source close to Michelle Obama” told People Magazine that, basically, MO is skipping these events simply because of Trump.

Shortly after Michelle Obama announced her plan to stay home during Donald Trump’s inauguration, a source familiar with her thinking tells PEOPLE that the former first lady would not want to fake a smile for someone whom she still considers a threat to American democracy.

“There’s no overstating her feelings about [Trump]. She’s not one to plaster on a pleasant face and pretend for protocol’s sake,” the source says. “Michelle doesn’t do anything because it’s expected or it’s protocol or it’s tradition.”

The source notes that Trump’s history of attacking the Obama family and making disparaging comments about people of color have also contributed to Michelle’s opinion of him, adding that she would be expected to swallow her feelings in the spotlight if she attended his second inauguration.

“She served in the public eye and did all the public good that she could for eight years as first lady,” the source says of her fulfilling her official responsibilities in 2017. “You’ll see her when she has a project or cause to promote but she doesn’t feel the need to be a public figure anymore.”

[From People]

To be fair, her absence could still indicate a rift between Michelle and her husband. There have been times where she showed up for events just because Barack had to attend, or he asked her to attend. She clearly doesn’t feel like doing anything for her husband’s sake. Of course, it’s also possible that Barack is totally fine with Michelle skipping, and he may have even encouraged her to do so to protect her peace. “There’s no overstating her feelings about [Trump]. She’s not one to plaster on a pleasant face and pretend for protocol’s sake.” Yeah, I’m including the photos of the 2017 inauguration in this post – Michelle looked like she needed a stiff drink that whole day. Her husband has more of a pokerface.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.