Politics
These are the far-right leaders Trump has invited to his inauguration ceremony on Jan. 20
Donald Trump’s second inauguration will break with tradition as a number of populist and strongmen foreign leaders have been invited to attend.

President-elect Donald Trump will be inaugurated on January 20 for a second time, this time as the 47th US president. Unlike his previous swearing-in ceremony, titans of the tech industry have been making a show of bankrolling Trump’s inaugural fund with million-dollar donations.
Additionally, this time around will be different not just from 2017 but from any previous US presidential inauguration in that foreign leaders have been invited instead of just their ambassadors and other diplomats. The US State Department has no record of a foreign leader attending a prior inauguration.
It was reported in December that Trump invited Chinese President Xi Jinping soon after winning the 2024 election. Xi himself will not attend, but will send a delegation.
However, the divergence from prior protocol on the part of Trump triggered a scramble by other foreign leaders to get an invite to the coveted event reported the New York Post. “They’re all going crazy,” a registered foreign agent told the outlet adding leaders “were champing at the bit to attend.”
However, unfortunately for most, they will not be getting an invite as they “are not bringing business or major companies” from their country, the agent had to tell them. There are other foreign leaders though that have gotten an invitation, and that seems to be based on their shared political views with the soon-to-be 47th US president.
Populists and strongmen invited to Trump’s inauguration
So far only one of the foreign leaders that has been invited to Trump’s inauguration has confirmed that they will be in attendance, President Javier Milei of Argentina. He was one of the first to meet with Trump in person after his 2024 victory. Trump has called the chainsaw-wielding far-right libertarian his “favorite president.”

The far-right populist President Nayib Bukele of Salvador has also received an invitation, which was confirmed his nation’s ambassador to the US. The self-proclaimed “world’s coolest dictator,” has yet to say whether or not he will attend.
Another South American strongman, former President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil, said that he has been sent an invite to “attend this honorable and important historical event.” However, the “Trump of the Tropics” will have difficulties getting to the US as his passport was revoked after he was indicted for plotting a January-6-style coup in 2022, along with dozens of others, after losing his reelection bid. According to authorities, the alleged conspiracy included a plan to assassinate Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the current president, before he took office.
From the other side of the Atlantic, the autocratic Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary has received an invitation to Trump’s January 20 inauguration but is “still considering” coming. The right-wing populist has been embraced by the hard right in the US, who held a CPAC conference in Budapest, and has had strong alliance with Trump for a long time.
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni of Italy has also been invited to Washington DC for Trump’s swearing-in. The far-right politician, whose party, Brothers of Italy, traces its roots to the Italian Social Movement (MSI), which is an heir to Benito Mussolini’s fascists that was set up after World War II. The late dictator’s granddaughter left the party last year saying that it had become too right wing. Meloni has said that if her schedule permits she’d be “happy to be there.”
Far-right French politician Eric Zemmour along with his partner, MEP Sarah Knafo, have received invitations to Trump’s inauguration according to Politico. This coup by the leader of Reconquest and its only MEP apparently caught the leader of National Rally, Marine Le Pen, France’s biggest far-right party, flatfooted.
While Le Pen and Trump hold similar political views, their relationship never took off as Trump’s has with other hard-right politicians. The outlet also points out that the liberal economic worldview of both Zemmour and Knafo is more in line with that of Elon Musk.
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