Where Is George "W" (Bush)?

George W. Bush’s Code of Silence George "W" is actally 80, same age as my parets. His Father Goerge Herbert Walker died @ age 94; He lovingly paints immigrants, praises free trade and diplomacy, and rues the coarsening of American politics. Why won’t he talk about Donald Trump? By Jacob Weisberg September 1, 2026

In 2015, when Donald Trump descended a golden escalator to announce his campaign for President, he had a clear target: George W. Bush’s younger brother Jeb. Jeb was at the top of the polls. His super PAC had raised more than a hundred million dollars, dwarfing the funds of the ten other declared candidates. Trump’s strategy was to provoke the front-runner. His first video ad excoriated Jeb for his comments on illegal immigration, which the Florida governor once called “an act of love.” In the months that followed, Trump bulldozed the Bush family and its legacy. He mocked Jeb as “low-energy” and accused him of representing his brother’s failed foreign policy. During the 2016 G.O.P. debate in South Carolina, he went for the kill. The war in Iraq was “a big, fat mistake,” he said. “They lied! They said there were weapons of mass destruction, there were none. And they knew there were none.” The audience booed, but Trump wasn’t finished. “The World Trade Center came down during your brother’s reign,” he told Jeb. “Remember that.” A week later, Jeb dropped out of the race, ending not just his candidacy but his family’s political dynasty and, effectively, the pre‑Trump Republican Party. As Trump dispatched his remaining challengers and secured the nomination, no one expected the Bushes to endorse him. Though it’s customary for former Presidents to appear at their party’s convention, George H. W. and George W. Bush skipped the coronation in Cleveland. “I don’t like him. . . . I don’t know much about him, but I know he’s a blowhard,” H.W. told the writer Mark K. Updegrove. “And I’m not too excited about him being a leader.” The elder Bush voted for Hillary Clinton, and W. cast his Presidential ballot for “None of the Above.” In office, Trump delighted in rejecting the Bush brand. “Thousand points of light,” Trump riffed at a 2018 rally in Montana, referencing George H. W. Bush’s signature initiative promoting civic service and voluntarism. “What the hell is that? Has anyone ever figured that one out?” The Bushes believed in diplomacy and international engagement; Trump favored putting “America First.” The Bushes supported open markets and free trade; Trump loved corporatism and tariffs. George W. Bush depicted immigrants, especially Latino immigrants, as contributors to their communities and the country. Trump was a nativist who insulted nonwhite immigrants in vile terms. There were a few moments in Trump’s first term when George W. Bush reminded people that he existed. In 2017, after Trump defended the white nationalists who rioted in Charlottesville, Bush gave a speech that reasserted his family’s values and implicitly criticized Trump. “Bullying and prejudice in our public life sets a national tone, provides permission for cruelty and bigotry, and compromises the moral education of children,” he said. “The only way to pass along civic values is to first live up to them.” The next year, the two Presidents saw each other at George H. W. Bush’s funeral, at the National Cathedral. Trump sat scowling with his arms folded as 43 praised 41 in terms that could only be read as criticism of 45. “Of course, Dad taught me another special lesson,” George W. said. “He showed me what it means to be a President who serves with integrity, leads with courage, and acts with love in his heart for the citizens of our country.” It was obvious who he thought didn’t. Yet as the party he led for eight years was remade by an authoritarian who mocked his family’s values, Bush refrained from uttering Trump’s name or challenging his policies directly. Bush said nothing when Trump blocked Muslims from entering the country, when Trump separated children from their parents at the border, or when Trump was impeached the first time, for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. When Trump tried to overturn the results of the 2020 election, Bush could muster only an oblique rebuke. He called the January 6th uprising “a sickening and heartbreaking sight,” attributing the violence to the “reckless behavior” and “falsehoods” spread by political leaders, whom he once again did not name. On the twentieth anniversary of the September 11th attacks, in 2021, Bush gave a speech warning about violent extremism at home. Trump, apparently unmoved by the occasion, responded by blasting Bush’s “failed and uninspiring presidency.” Why has Bush, the only living former Republican President, been absent and invisible?