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Donald Trump, who has sought to turn his inauguration into a global event, extended direct invitations to some foreign leaders, including heads of state who have clashed with the United States in the recent past. But that is not common at the inauguration of an American president.
Trump invited Chinese President Xi Jinping, but the president will not attend and instead sends Vice President Han Zheng as his special representative, AP confirmed. The invitation was an exceptionally unusual offer extended to the communist leader of one of the United States’ main geopolitical rivals.
The President of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, the Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, and the Argentine President, Javier Milei, were also invited by Trump or his team, sources confirmed to CNN. All three are close allies of Trump, who have also made the United States and its allies nervous at times with their embrace of authoritarian tactics and far-right politics.
Milei will make an international tour that includes his presence in Washington and his participation in the World Economic Forum in Davos.
The offices of Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa and Paraguay’s President Santiago Peña have also said they were invited and planned to attend.
Venezuelan opposition leader Edmundo González Urrutia will also attend Trump’s inauguration. He was invited by “the Government of the United States,” indicated Con Venezuela, the platform that nominated him as a candidate in the last elections. González Urrutia “hopes to meet with other members of the new administration,” he added in a press release.
Meanwhile, former President of Brazil Jair Bolsonaro requested to travel to the US in order to attend the inauguration, but his request was rejected by the Supreme Federal Court. The former president accused the Supreme Court of “judicial persecution” for rejecting his request.
The invitations to attend his party in Washington were mostly informal, a person with knowledge of the conversations told CNN, and have sometimes come in passing during telephone conversations about other matters. The person also said that some invitations have gone through back channels, not directly from leader to leader.
Trump also issued written invitations, a source familiar with the matter said, and has had his team send them to foreign leaders.
It is up to the president-elect and his team to determine which guests will attend his inauguration, including any world leaders they may invite, a source familiar with the process told CNN. Diplomats are typically contacted by the bipartisan Congressional Joint Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies and the State Department to attend.
However, it is rare for heads of state to make international visits to Washington for an inauguration, and it is up to the discretion of the incoming president to make such requests, the source said.
With reporting by Kristen Holmes, Alayna Treene, Kate Sullivan and Steve Contorno from CNN, as well as AP and EFE.
