CBS News reports: Trump invites China’s Xi Jinping to inauguration.
In addition to Xi, the president-elect’s team has raised the possibility of hosting other leaders at the Capitol on Jan. 20. Hungary’s far-right leader, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who has a warm relationship with Trump and visited him at Mar-a-Lago this week, is “still considering” whether to attend, according to a source familiar with Orbán’s plans.
CNN adds:
El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Argentinean President Javier Milei have also been invited by Trump or his team, sources confirmed to CNN. All three are close allies of Trump who have also shaken the nerves of the US and its allies at times for their embrace of strongman tactics and their far-right politics.
To my recollection, foreign heads of state do not typically attend the event, but I am open to correction on that point. First, what national leader wants to be an ornament at another leader’s swearing-in? Second, security and general logistics are already a big enough headache as it is. Adding in additional presidents and the like would increase that nightmare exponentially.
As such, it is unlikely that any of them will accept the invitation.
There is also the clear feeling one gets from all of this that Trump sees Inauguration Day as being about him, not a ceremony about the peaceful transfer of power or a celebration of the constitutional order. The silly inaugural balls are his parties. The big event is for the country, at least ideally (I recognize that it is impossible for many, myself included, Trump’s return to power). Still, the “won’t you please come to my party?” vibe is unpresidential (not that that is a shock).
But the real reason this drew my attention is the type of leader Trump is inviting: they are all strongmen and/or far-right types.
Xi is arguably the most authoritarian leader in the world in terms of scope and longevity.
Orbán has steered his country away from democracy toward illiberalism if not authoritarianism. He is a model for a lot of what Trump and his allies want for the US.
Bukele of El Salvador has been a hardliner in office, including sending troops against Congress and getting the Supreme Court to allow him to run for re-election despite a requirement that he sit out 10 years.
Milei of Argentina is harder to summarize. He is eccentric and has been willing to engage in draconian economic policies. He is more of a hardcore libertarian than anything else. At one point, he was compared to Trump because of the noted eccentricities.
Meloni of Italy is a member of a populist, right-wing party and is leading the most right-wing government in Italy since WWII.
So, we see an ongoing pattern with Trump. He likes authoritarians and hardliners. He continually tells us who he is and what he values.
And before someone suggests that I am saying that the US shouldn’t talk to everyone, that’s not the point. The point is that inviting specific persons to a celebratory event tells you a lot about the person doing the inviting.
