The U.S. president-elect lays down a very clear ideological market with his unusual invitees from all over the globe. Donald Trump’s guest list for his January 20 inauguration as the United States president is starting to shape up as a global Who’s Who of right-wing populists. Inaugurations are known to be traditional, flag-waving affairs and democratic rites for the home crowd.
The wide majority of foreign diplomats attend as a courtesy, but heads of state and governments aren’t always included. So it’s only natural that Trump did not stand with the tradition. He has invited many of the foreign leaders he discussed with by phone or welcomed in person at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida, like Argentinian President Javier Milei and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
As the European centrist mainstream has been quite sidelined, since EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen hasn’t been invited, there was plenty of space afforded to far-right and nationalist politicians.
For instance, the British anti-EU populist Nigel Farage was there, as were the French firebrand Éric Zemmour, Belgium’s Tom Van Grieken, and former Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, who clashed with Brussels in a prolonged rule-of-law dispute.
Among them will also be a smattering of ministers, diplomats, and foreign politicians who are quite eager to get close to the elected U.S. President.
“Nothing about this is actually normal,” according to Edward Frantz, the chair of the Department of History and Political Science at the University of Indianapolis. He also noted that “the ceremony and the proceedings are nothing but a domestic matter.”
Indeed, the U.S. State Department data showed no examples of foreign leaders attending the ceremony (even if experts cautioned the data might be incomplete.) However, we cannot help but notice a common ideological thread to Trump’s invitees: Many hail from the right or even the far right of the political spectrum, or are leaders whom Trump previously praised.
In such a sense, the inauguration reveals more about the political trajectory of his administration, and who might have been the president’s ear as soon as he was installed at the White House.
The Meloni and Milei show
On the top of the guest list, we have leaders such as the Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Milei, the Trump-styled populist who won Argentina’s presidency in 2023. The latter, who’s being billed as a “titan of economic reform” on a flyer for the pre-inauguration “Official Hispanic Inaugural Ball” confirmed his attendance a month ago. Meloni, who visited Mar-a-Lago earlier this month and was dubbed an “amazing woman” by Trump, received an invitation and attended the ceremony.
Who else was invited? Well, the Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, an arduous admirer of Russian President Vladimir Putin who is also known as the “bad boy” of European politics. Orban couldn’t make it to the inauguration, according to Hungarian media.
However, for less Trump-aligned leaders, the whole calculus around the American inauguration wasn’t a
Despite her right-wing background, Meloni worked quite well with the outgoing administration of President Joe Biden and democratic allies across NATO and the G7. Even if she would have rather visited Washington after the chaos of inauguration week and get more one-on-one time with the president after the dust has settled, her stated desire to attend shows her level of respect and understanding of Trump, which could ultimately benefit the bilateral relationship. “It might be strange for a leader to come, but they treat the request as reasonable because it matters to Trump,” as one EU diplomat explained. “No one will laugh this off, because there are many things that are needed from Trump.”
Trump also invited China’s leader Xi to the inauguration last month. The request stands as a symbol of Trump’s willingness to have an open dialog” with Xi, as Trump’s incoming press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, told Fox News.
As you can imagine, it caught the Chinese diplomats a bit off-guard. The invitation was quite short notice, not to mention the fact that Chinese heads of state never attended any other U.S. presidential inauguration.
Everyone saw Xi’s attendance as highly unlikely, even if he wanted to be there. Beijing imposes a certain military-style planning on the foreign travel arrangements of Chinese senior leaders, and it usually takes many months to finalize.
However, Xi clearly wants to message goodwill to Trump by sending a senior official to attend the event. That’s why Xi dispatched Vice President Han Zheng to Monday’s ceremony.
Han has a very symbolic role in the Chinese leadership structure, but Wang’s attendance would more than likely segue into future talks with Trump’s foreign policy team, including Secretary of State nominee Senator Marco Rubio and national security adviser Mike Waltz.
The results of such meetings, and whether they involve a possible Chinese offer of an early trade deal to mitigate Trump’s promised tariffs on Chinese imports, could easily establish the tenor of U.S.-China ties at the outset of the administration.
Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, India’s foreign minister, also attended, while Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya also confirmed plans to be there. The Trump transition also extended invitations to El Salvadorean President Nayib Bukele and Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa, who attended the ceremony during a brief visit to Washington.
Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro also got an invitation but wasn’t able to attend having had his passport revoked due to an investigation. Besides the X billionaire Elon Musk, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, and Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg, tech moguls from all over the pond attended the ceremony. French billionaire and tech entrepreneur Xavier Niel was there with his wife.
European who’s who
From the United Kingdom, Trump’s transition team also invited not only the British Ambassador to the U.S. Karen Pierce, but also the Reform Party leader Farage. Despite the most recent public spat with Trump’s close ally Musk, the arch-Breexiter confirmed his attendance.
From France, anti-immigration politician and author of the apocalyptic bestseller “The French Suicide,” Zemmour, also confirmed his presence, as well as his partner, European lawmaker Sarah Knafo (French Ambassador to Washington Laurent Bili was also invited and attended.)
Trump’s allies opened their arms to Germany’s far-right, sending an invitation to Alternative for Germany (AfD) party chancellor candidate Alice Weidel, even if her office declared to POLITICO that she won’t be able to attend due to a busy campaign schedule ahead of the February 23 German election. Party co-leader, Tino Chrupalla went instead.
Following Elon Musk’s enthusiastic endorsement of the AfD, Chrupalla’s attendance is yet another sign that the Trump administration will actively boost Germany’s far-right at the expense of the country’s next coalition government, which many polls suggest might end up being led by conservatives.
Germany’s conservatives sent Jurgen Hardt, foreign policy spokesperson for the Christian Democratic Union. Santiago Abascal, the leader of Spain’s ultranationalist Vox party, has also been invited in his capacity as president of the far-right European Patriots party, which also includes members from 11 EU countries, and has 86 MEPs in the European Parliament.
From Portugal, Andre Ventura, head of the right-wing populist Chega party, was also invited along with other hard-right European figures. Poland’s Morawiecki told POLITICO on Tuesday that he plans to attend the ceremony in Washington, D.C., as well.
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