Three days ago, Barbara Bush passed away in the city of Houston, Texas, at the age of 92. There has been an outpouring of support from the political figures of the US. Bush was the former First Lady of the United States as the wife of former US President George H.W. Bush, a few years before her son George W. Bush took the same office. So, as both a wife and a mother, she was very successful. Her funeral is currently being planned and many US officials will be in attendance, but the most important one – sitting President Donald Trump, a member of the Bush family’s prized Republican Party – won’t be.
To be fair, Trump has some very good reasons for skipping out on the funeral. While he did say that he believed the ex-First Lady was a “wonderful, wonderful person,” he said that he was worried about all the “added security” that would come along with him to the funeral. Whenever the President goes anywhere, there are Secret Service agents everywhere, and he’s worried that with all of them around, it might either disturb the funeral service at St. Martin’s Episcopal Church in Houston or otherwise be seen as a sign of disrespect. This problem isn’t true and may not be his full reasoning for bowing out of his expected funeral attendance, but that’s the line, anyway.
According an official statement released by the White House staff, the President will be missing the funeral in order to “avoid disruptions” that may be caused by all the extra security that would follow him to the event.
They said that the President will miss the funeral “out of respect” for Barbara Bush and the family that she leaves behind. Instead, Trump’s wife and current First Lady Melania Trump will be going to his place to represent the family at her predecessor’s memorial service.
Trump has tangled with the Bush family in the past
The relationship between Trump and the Bush family is not as simplistic or black-and-white as, well, the belong to the same political party and they have three Presidencies between them.
There are some subtle tensions between the two families. For starters, Trump was running against the Bush family’s very own Jeb Bush in the campaign for the 2016 primary elections for the Presidential candidacy. These elections decide who gets to run in the Presidential election race for the Republican Party, and obviously, the “Celebrity Apprentice” host beat the guy whose father and brother have both been the President of the United States before.
That’s where the tensions between the Trump family and the Bush family began.
Still, Trump appears to be letting bygones be bygones (although perhaps the Bush family will not be as forgiving) with the family in the wake of their beloved matriarch’s passing. In the days since she died, the President has been remembering her very fondly. At a press conference delivered from his infamous Mar-a-Lago resort (where he seems to have spent more time during his tenure in the White House than the White House itself), he described the late First Lady Bush as “a woman of proud patriotism and profound faith.”
Bush, Sr. called Trump a ‘blowhard’
While Trump may be willing to set his feud with the Bush family to one side, they don’t seem to be ready to return the favour.
George H.W. Bush, the husband of the late First Lady who used to be the President himself, has called the current President a “blowhard,” while his son George W. Bush, the son of the late First Lady, who also used to be the President himself, was quoted as saying that Trump “doesn’t know what it means to be President.” So, maybe they’re glad that he’s bowing out of attending the funeral. It might be a win-win situation.
