Not one to stand on ceremony, Trump invites world leaders, not their messengers, to Inauguration

Up until now, formal international representation at U.S. presidential inaugurations has usually been limited to ambassadors and other diplomats. National leaders have preferred one-on-one meetings with the incoming U.S. leader in the weeks and months following his installation rather than being another face in the crowd

That precedent will be broken on Jan. 20, 2025.

The international guest list for Donald Trump’s inauguration as the nation’s 47th president is still not firm five weeks out. But indications are that – despite some high-profile leaders who said they won’t come – it’ll be the largest gathering of national leaders in Washington at least since the state funeral of George H. W. Bush in 2018.

Reports are that Trump and his team have extended multiple invitations to world leaders, either directly or indirectly as the 78-year-old Trump looks to use the event to pat international friends on the back and strengthen ties with others.

The most notable head of state likely to be at the capitol on Inauguration Day is Benjamin Netanyahu: Israeli media reports the country's prime minister is leaning toward coming to Washington, D.C. to help welcome Trump back to the White House for his second term. If Netanyahue does make the trip, it will be amid high tensions in the Middle East and despite a warrant for his arrest for alleged war crimes issued by the International Criminal Court that is binding in 124 countries (Israel and the U.S. are not among the them).

Almost sure to come are Argentinian President Javier Milei and Giorgia Meloni, Italy’s prime minister. Milei and Meloni are both eager to strengthen ties with the White House: Milei attracted headlines last month when he enthusiastically danced to “YMCA” – the unofficial Trump anthem – while visiting the president-elect in Mar-a-Lago last month. Regarding vocal supporter Meloni, Trump cut off an Italian reporter asking about her this week to gush, “She’s fantastic. She’s a fantastic leader and a person!”

Viktor Orban of Hungary has met with Trump at Mar-a-Lago twice since July, and he is a good bet to come back in January, while there are reports that Trump personally called Nayib Bukele of El Salvador to invite him to attend. Donald Trump Jr. attended Bukele’s inauguration as his father’s envoy in June and it’s hard to imagine the El Salvadorian wouldn’t come to D.C.

Among those unlikely to show up at the inauguration are Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Russia’s Vladimir Putin.

It is confirmed that Trump invited Xi to the Jan. 20 event even as ties between the countries were strained by Trump’s threats of record high tariffs on Chinese goods. But while the invitation is seen as having some symbolic value experts say there is little chance Xi would accept.

“Can you imagine Xi Jinping sitting outdoors in Washington, D.C., in January, at the feet of the podium, surrounded by hawkish members of Congress, gazing up at Donald Trump as he delivers his inaugural address?” the Associated Press quoted former Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Danny Russel as saying.

Russian media, meanwhile, has reported that Putin has not been asked to attend. Trump and Putin have had strong ties dating back to their bilateral summit in Finland during Trump’s first term. But asked whether Putin had received an invitation to the inauguration this week, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said only, “No, he has not” without elaborating.

Putin’s absence may open the door for Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky to further lobby Trump for the U.S. to continue supporting his country's war effort against Russia. There is no formal indication that Zelensky will attend the inauguration, but the Ukrainian has been working hard to curry favor with Trump since his election victory – including a trilateral meeting this week in Paris during the reopening of the Notre Dame Cathedral. 

There, Zelensky thanked Trump for his “strong resolve” to end the 30-month-old war even though it is far from certain Trump would do so in Ukraine’s favor.

The third leader in the Trump-Zelensky trilateral in Paris, for the reopening of the Notre Dame Cathedral, was French President Emmanuel Macron, the event’s host. As with Zelensky, it does not appear that Macron has formally been invited to the event, but, also as with Zelensky, Macron has rarely passed up an opportunity to cozy up to Trump in recent weeks despite past political differences.

Macron was the first world leader to formally congratulate Trump on his electoral victory in November (beating Italy’s Meloni by six minutes), and in Paris this week he showed he was willing to work with Trump despite the president-elect’s low approval levels in France and Macron’s domestic political challenges.