Michelle Obama Says She ‘Stopped Even Trying To Smile’ At Trump Inauguration
Former first lady Michelle Obama said that she “stopped even trying to smile” during President Trump’s inauguration. In an interview with Good Morning America’s Robin Roberts, Obama talked about her upcoming book and what she wrote about what was going through her mind as the administration shifted from the Obamas to the Trumps in 2017.
While speaking with Roberts, Obama shared that she wrote about the event in her new book Becoming.
“Someone from Barack’s administration might have said that the optics there were bad, that what the public saw didn’t reflect the president’s reality or ideals, ” she wrote in the book. “But in this case, maybe it did.”
“Realizing it, I made my own optic adjustment,” she said. “I stopped even trying to smile.”
Roberts pointed out that the Obamas have generally stuck to the tradition of staying neutral on presidential successors since leaving the White House nearly two years ago. Even so, Roberts said, she wonders what goes through the former first lady’s mind when she hears and reads about things happening in the Trump administration.
“I said what I continue to say — being the commander in chief is a hard job,” Obama replied. “You need to have discipline. You need to read and you need to be knowledgeable. You need to know history. You need to be careful with your words.”
Still, she believes that we must honor the voice of the people, despite any personal reservations she may have.
“But voters make those decisions and once the voters have spoken, we live with what we live with,” she said.
“I stopped even trying to smile,” @MichelleObama shares what she was feeling during President Trump’s 2017 Presidential Inauguration. #MichelleObama #Michellehttps://t.co/GG1GiLxNVX pic.twitter.com/iBq38HR5hv
— Good Morning America (@GMA) November 12, 2018
Obama didn’t hold back when describing her thoughts about the choice of the voters.
“I will always wonder about what led so many, women in particular, to reject an exceptionally qualified female candidate and instead choose a misogynist as their president,” Obama wrote.
The former first lady has been speaking about her new book, which hits shelves on Tuesday, with media around the country as part of a promotional tour. The book has received some attention for the author’s comments on Trump’s pushing of the conspiracy that Barack Obama wasn’t born in the United States.
In her book, Obama says she will “never forgive” him for spreading the birther conspiracy, saying that it was not only bigoted and mean-spirited but that it could have put her family in danger.
“What if someone with an unstable mind loaded a gun and drove to Washington? What if that person went looking for our girls? 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.
