Trump’s reported inauguration guest list includes host of right-wing global leaders

Donald Trump’s reported inauguration guest list includes a number of right-wing leaders – and their inclusion breaks with traditional US foreign policy.

The presidential inauguration is customarily a strictly domestic affair, with no of any foreign leader having formally attended in almost 250 years, according to The Times of India. However, among the many right-wing guests invited on 20 January is Chinese president Xi Jinping. He is highly unlikely to attend but will send either vice-president Han Zheng or foreign minister Wang Yi in his place.

External affairs minister S Jaishankar is expected to attend on behalf of the Indian government, alongside Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni, Argentina’s president Javier Milei, El Salvador president Nayib Bukele, and the notoriously anti-LGBTQ+ Viktor Orbán.

Trump praised Orbán in 2022, when he was running for re-election as Hungary’s prime minister, and did so again as recently as last September.

Orbán has repeatedly restricted the civil rights of LGBTQ+ Hungarians. He has amended the constitution to change the definition of family and effectively banned adoption by same-sex couples, as well as putting in place a law allowing citizens to report same-sex parents to the authorities. 

His anti-LGBTQ+ propaganda law bans the “promotion” of queer lives to minors and he has stripped away transgender rights by ending legal recognition for trans people. 

Meloni has an equally poor record on LGBTQ+ rights and has aligned herself closely to Orbán. She has railed against what she described as the “LGBT lobby” and denounced “gender ideology”. In addition, she has publicly opposed surrogacy and adoption by queer couples during, stating that she is not homophobic, but believes it is best for a child be raised by a mother and a father. 

Former TV celebrity Milei – a climate-change denier who has previously described himself as a “tantric sex instructor” – has previously hit out at “gender ideology” for destroying “the values of society”. He reportedly uses a psychic to ask his dead dog for political advice.

Bukele, meanwhile, has opposed marriage equality, refused to support gender recognition for trans people, and effectively shut down the government’s sexual diversity work, according to Human Rights Watch. 

Also on the list of invitees are Brazil’s former president and self-proclaimed “proud homophobe” Jair Bolsonaro, and French politician Eric Zemmour, who has been fined for condemning lesbian mothers.

According to reports, Open AI chief Sam Altman, Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg and Uber boss Dara Khosrowshahi will also attend the swearing-in ceremony.

When does Donald Trump enter the White House? 

Trump will legally assume the role of president after his inauguration at the US Capitol building in Washington DC on 20 January, being sworn in after JD Vance takes the vice-president’s oath of office.

It will be Trump’s second term – unusually, not consecutively – and the 22nd amendment of the constitution allows a person to hold the highest office in the US only twice. 

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