Donald Trump’s guest list for his Jan. 20 inauguration as U.S. president is shaping up to be a global Who’s Who of right-wing populists.
Inaugurations tend to be traditional, flag-waving affairs, an important democratic rite for the home crowd. Foreign diplomats typically attend as a courtesy, but heads of state and governments aren’t usually included.
Trump, of course, isn’t one for tradition. He has invited many of the foreign leaders he’s spoken to by phone or welcomed in person at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida, such as Argentinian President Javier Milei and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
While the European centrist mainstream has been sidelined — EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has conspicuously not been invited — plenty of space has been afforded to far-right and nationalist politicians. British anti-EU populist Nigel Farage will be there, as will French firebrand Éric Zemmour, Belgium’s Tom Van Grieken, and former Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, who clashed with Brussels in a long rule-of law dispute.
Among them will be a smattering of ministers, diplomats and foreign politicians eager to get close to the next U.S. president.
Nothing about this is exactly normal, said Edward Frantz, chair of the department of history and political science at the University of Indianapolis, while noting that “the ceremony and the proceedings are really entirely a domestic matter.” Indeed, U.S. State Department data show no examples of foreign leaders attending the ceremony (though experts cautioned the data may be incomplete).
There is, however, a common ideological thread to his invitees: Many hail from the right or even the far-right of the political spectrum, or are leaders whom Trump has previously praised. In that sense, the inauguration reveals plenty about the political trajectory of his administration — and about who might have the president’s ear once he is installed at the White House.
The Meloni and Milei show
Topping the guest list are leaders like Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Milei, the Trump-styled populist who won Argentina’s presidency in 2023. The latter — who is being billed as a “titan of economic reform” on a flyer for a pre-inauguration “Official Hispanic Inaugural Ball” — confirmed his attendance a month ago.
Meloni, who visited Mar-a-Lago earlier this month and was dubbed a “fantastic woman” by Trump, has received an invitation and will attend the ceremony if her schedule permits, her office said. Also invited: Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, an admirer of Russian President Vladimir Putin who is known as the “bad boy” of European politics. Orbán will not be able to make it, his office told Hungarian media.
