Trump Inauguration Foreign Leaders
SOURCE: Associated Press (AP)
(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today it sued the California Coastal Commission for records about the decision to prohibit more Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) rockets from launching out of Vandenberg Space Force Base (Judicial Watch Inc. v. California Coastal Commission (No. CPF-24-518820)). A member of the Commission specifically tied her vote against Musk and SpaceX to Musk’s support for President Trump.
The petition was filed in the Superior Court for the County of San Francisco after the Coastal Commission failed to comply with an October 16, 2024, California Public Records Act request by Judicial Watch for records and communications of commissioners regarding SpaceX, Elon Musk, Starlink, Donald Trump, and rocket launches from Vandenberg Space Force Base.
On October 15, 2024, SpaceX sued the California Coastal Commission citing that the agency “egregiously and unlawfully overreaching its authority” when it “engaged in naked political discrimination,” punishing “a company for the political views and statements of its largest shareholder and CEO,” who is Elon Musk.
The suit recounts an extensive history of SpaceX launches of the Falcon 9 rockets from Vandenberg: “For decades, the Commission has, without fail, agreed with the longstanding position of the U.S. Department of the Air Force (Air Force) that the Base’s commercial space launch programs are federal agency activities that are not subject to Commission’s permitting authority or control.” Further:
Now, however … the Commission has decided to ignore longstanding federal policy and law, its own established practices … to impose a different standard on SpaceX. Specifically, the Commission refused to concur with a proposal by the United States Department of the Air Force to increase from 36 to 50 the number of launches that SpaceX can perform at the Base.
The suit refers to an October 10, 2024, Coastal Commission meeting during which they voted 6-4 to deny the request to allow more SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets to launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base:
As Commissioner Caryl Hart said: the basis for the decision was not that a commercial operator with a space launch program at the Base was increasing its annual launch cadence, but rather that SpaceX was doing so: “The concern is with SpaceX increasing its launches, not with the other companies increasing their launches . . . we’re dealing with a company . . . the head of which has aggressively injected himself into the Presidential race and made it clear what his point of view is.”
China
Chinese President Xi Jinping was the first foreign leader whose invitation to the inauguration became public in December. Xi will not attend but is sending Vice President Han Zheng.
The announcement to dispatch Han was made Friday by the country’s foreign ministry, and it comes as the rivalry between the U.S. and China may escalate under Trump. Several of Trump’s Cabinet picks are known China hawks, including Rubio, who has called China “the most potent, dangerous and near-peer adversary this nation has ever confronted.”
Trump has vowed to impose tariffs and other measures on China. But the two leaders spoke on the phone Friday and discussed trade, fentanyl and TikTok. Trump said the call was a “very good one.”
Argentina
Milei was the first foreign leader to meet with Trump after the Nov. 5 election, traveling from Buenos Aires to the president-elect’s Mar-a-Lago club.
Milei is scheduled to attend one of the official inaugural balls that Trump will attend on Inauguration Day, as well as the swearing-in ceremony. The self-described “anarcho-capitalist,” who has carried out an audacious economic agenda in the South American nation, got a hug from Vivek Ramaswamy, a Trump insider, on stage at Hispanic ball before delivering remarks.
Ramaswamy called him “an inspiration.” Milei also receives praise frequently from billionaire Elon Musk for implementing a series of austerity measures that laid off tens of thousands of government workers, froze public infrastructure projects and imposed wage and pension freezes below inflation.
Musk and Ramaswamy will lead a non-governmental effort to cut federal government spending, regulations and personnel.
Milei hopes good relations with the U.S. could help Argentina reach a new deal with the International Monetary Fund.
Italy
Meloni is another leader who has recently visited Mar-a-Lago. Her weekly agenda says she will attend the swearing-in ceremony.
Meloni kept unexpectedly good relations with Democratic President Joe Biden but is likely to form a more natural alliance with Trump. She is considered a key interlocutor between Europe and the U.S.
Georgia
Pro-Western former Georgia President Salome Zourabichvili will attend the ceremony as a guest of U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C. Georgia has been wracked by protests following a parliamentary election that opposition groups alleged was rigged.
She has maintained she is still the legitimate leader of the former Soviet republic after Mikheil Kavelashvili was inaugurated as president late last month from a party that critics have accused of becoming increasingly authoritarian and tilted toward Moscow. Kavelashvili’s ruling party has denied those accusations.
Zourabichvili told Fox News that Georgia could be “the big success for America or the big problem for America” in the region because “Russia is always trying to dominate.”
France
French President Emmanuel Macron, who met with Trump last month in Paris during the Notre Dame Cathedral reopening, won’t be at Trump’s inauguration. But far-right figures from the country have said they are traveling for the inauguration.
Eric Zemmour, a talk show pundit turned conservative politician, and his partner, Sarah Knafo, a member of the European Parliament, said they will attend. Zemmour was convicted multiple times of inciting racist or religious hatred.
Prominent far-right politician Marion Maréchal said in a statement that she would go as well. She is a member of the European Parliament and niece of the leading conservative figure in France eyeing the 2027 presidential election.
Who else?
The offices of Ecuadorean President Daniel Noboa and Paraguayan President Santiago Peña have said they were invited to the inauguration and planned to attend.
Peña, a conservative economist turned politician, praised Trump’s agenda and said at the Hispanic ball that he hoped for deeper ties between U.S. and Latin America.
Taiwan sent legislative speaker Han Kuo-yu and seven others to Washington for Trump’s inauguration, but Taiwan’s foreign ministry said its delegates would not attend the ceremony now that it has been moved indoors because of cold weather.
Taiwan’s official Central News Agency, citing Taiwan’s foreign ministry, also reported that the delegates would meet American politicians and think tank scholars to cement Taiwan-U.S. relations. It’s unclear if they will meet Trump.
Trump has criticized Taiwan for pulling some of the semiconductor industry from the U.S., but U.S.-Taiwan relations also significantly improved during his first term.
On a phone call Friday between Trump and Xi, the Chinese president urged the incoming U.S. leader to approach the Taiwan issue “with prudence” because it is about China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. Beijing claims the self-governed island as Chinese territory and vows to annex it by force if necessary.
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Associated Press writers Matt Brown and Didi Tang in Washington, Sylvie Corbet in Paris and Nicole Winfield in Rome contributed to this report