George H.W. Bush highlights Trump's isolation
The US president greets Barack Obama but avoids doing so with other former presidents, such as Bill Clinton or Jimmy Carter
The nation's most exclusive fraternity, the Presidents' Club, gathered Wednesday to mourn George H.W. Bush, who died last Friday at the age of 94, highlighting his uneasy relationship with the current occupant of the White House. The funeral put the Trumps and former Oval Office tenants and political rivals like the Obamas and Clintons on the same bench.
The late Bush was the de facto president of the modern incarnation of the presidents club, transcending contentious campaigns and party lines to rally risky personalities who share that rarefied experience. But the serious group of occupants of the Ovall Office has been disturbed by the election of Donald Trump. Since taking office, Trump has rejected most contact with his predecessors and vice versa.
Since taking office, Trump has rejected most contact with his predecessors and vice versa.
The Bushes had made it known to the White House months ago that despite differences in politics and temperament, the late president wanted Trump to attend national service. And the current president has complied with his will, but the distance that separates him from the others was felt in the environment.
Minutes before the funeral ceremony began, former Presidents Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, and Jimmy Carter and their spouses, Michelle, Hillary, and Rosalynn, respectively, chatted in a relaxed manner with each other from their seats in the front row of the Washington National Cathedral. . The former presidents leaned over their wives to converse with each other. Bill Clinton and former first lady Michelle Obama shared a quiet conversation.
The arrival of the Trumps threw a blanket of ice on the talks
But the arrival of the Trumps, minutes before the caravan carrying Bush's coffin, threw a blanket of ice on the talks. First lady Melania Trump approached first, greeting Obama and former President Clinton with a handshake. The president then shook hands with both Obamas before sitting down, which he did not do with his rival in the 2016 election, Hillary Clinton. The Carters, for their part, appeared as if they were unaware of their arrival at all. After that, the little conversation along the line largely stopped.
3 of the 5 living presidents sit together at the funeral of former President George H.W. Bush.#Remembering41 #Bush41 https://t.co/iuYdkVE6me pic.twitter.com/A4mHzxj35b
— CBS This Morning (@CBSThisMorning) December 5, 2018
Then came George W. Bush, who, by contrast, shook hands with the entire line of dignitaries, and seemed to share a moment of humor with Michelle Obama, slipping something into her hand. Bush took a seat across from the former presidents, with the rest of the Bush family.
The greeting between Trump and Obama was the first known between the two since the transfer of power, on January 20, 2017.
Trump has tried to graciously face the passing of the elderly Bush, in contrast to the rhythms of much of his tumultuous presidency. The Republican came to power after a campaign in which he harshly attacked his Democratic predecessors and seized a Republican Party once dominated by the Bush family.
Despite the traditional kinship between presidents, all of Trump's predecessors have voiced their discomfort in different ways. "It is unusual that a gang of former presidents of both parties does not like a sitting president and that is what is happening at the moment," the history professor at Rice University, Douglas Brinkley, told the AP agency.
Busy with a mix of personal activities, charitable endeavors, and in some cases paid lectures, past leaders don't mix very often, making a funeral in their group a great occasion. Linked by the presidency, they tend to be cautious in their comments about others. Yet all living former presidents have targeted, directly or indirectly, against Trump.
The greeting between Trump and Obama was the first known between the two since the transfer of power
In a speech in September, Obama criticized the "follies" that came out of the White House without directly naming Trump (as he does whenever he reproaches him for something). Last year, the young Bush delivered a speech that confronted many of the issues of the Trump presidency without mentioning him by name, warning that "intolerance seems emboldened" and the nation's politics "seems more vulnerable to conspiracy theories. and simple manufacturing ”.
Over the summer, Carter told The Washington Post that Trump's presidency was a "disaster." And Clinton, stung by the defeat of his wife Hillary Clinton to Trump in the 2016 presidential race, told a weekly newspaper in upstate New York after his surprising loss that Trump "doesn't know much."
Even the late Bush's feelings about Trump were harsh at times. In Mark K. Updegrove's book The Last Republicans, published last year, the elder Bush called Trump a "braggart." The late Bush said he voted for Clinton in 2016, while George W. Bush said he voted for "none of the above."
