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Trump Offers Praise for Bush and Will Attend the Funeral It’s Now Donald Trump’s America. But George Bush’s Stamp Endures.
(about 5 hours later)
BUENOS AIRES — President Trump, who had a hostile relationship with the last Republican family to occupy the White House, offered nothing but praise on Saturday for former President George Bush after he died at age 94, and the White House said the president would attend the funeral. BUENOS AIRES — Former President George Bush’s legacy was on display just hours before his death. President Trump signed a new trade agreement with Mexico and Canada that was the next generation of the North American Free Trade Agreement, which Mr. Bush first negotiated nearly three decades ago.
Mr. Trump plans to call former President George W. Bush, the son of the 41st commander in chief, to offer his condolences, the White House said in a statement. A state funeral is being arranged and Mr. Trump will designate Wednesday as a national day of mourning. Mr. Trump and the first lady will attend the funeral at the Washington National Cathedral. As Mr. Trump scrawled his name on the document on Friday, however, he chose not to frame the accord as building on Mr. Bush’s accomplishment, but as tearing it down. Rather than the natural update of Nafta, he characterized it as the replacement for a disastrous agreement. “The terrible NAFTA will soon be gone,” he declared on Twitter.
If ever there was a moment when it was clear that Mr. Bush’s America has given way to Mr. Trump’s America, this is it. Mr. Bush’s death at age 94 is the end of an era, the passing of the last of the World War II and Cold War presidents and the fading of an approach to public life overtaken by the politics of anger, grievance and polarization.
Yet however much he wants to dismantle it, Mr. Trump is still operating within the framework that Mr. Bush helped establish. While he disparaged Nafta, Mr. Trump ultimately accepted Mr. Bush’s fundamental concept of knitting together the three great nations of North America in a single, integrated trade bloc. The alliances that Mr. Bush built and bolstered remain in place, however frayed. And a host of civil rights, environmental and other Bush-era laws still govern America.
“He was a very fine man. I met him on a number of occasions,” Mr. Trump, who was in Buenos Aires meeting with world leaders, told reporters shortly after calling former President George W. Bush and former Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida to offer condolences. “He was a terrific guy, and he’ll be missed. He lived a full life and an exemplary life.”
His words of admiration belied a history of animosity with the Bush family. Mr. Trump eviscerated Jeb Bush during the 2016 Republican primaries and regularly disparaged George W. Bush. The elder Mr. Bush refused to support Mr. Trump in the fall election, voting instead for Hillary Clinton. The younger George Bush has said he voted for none of the above.
George Herbert Walker Bush led the country and the world through a hinge point in history as decades of superpower rivalry came to a close in a remarkably peaceful way and the United States emerged as the dominant force on the planet. With the reunification of Germany, he helped redraw the map of Europe, and he set in motion a drastic reduction in the world’s largest nuclear arsenals.
His foray into the Middle East successfully ousted Iraq from Kuwait but entangled the United States in the region in a way that would later prove disastrous when George W. Bush sent troops to Baghdad. And his broken “read my lips” promise not to raise taxes and his inability to hold off a recession spelled his political doom as voters rejected him for a second term in 1992.
Arguably, that moment proved a precursor to this one as conservatives angry at his apostasy, led by a onetime backbench congressman from Georgia named Newt Gingrich, rose to power within the Republican Party and toppled the old establishment. The harder-edged Gingrich revolution in some ways foreshadowed Mr. Trump’s extraordinary takeover of the party.
“Bush was truly the last-of-a-kind of president,” said Jon Meacham, who spent much time with the former president while writing “Destiny and Power,” his definitive biography of the 41st president. “He had more in common culturally with F.D.R. and Eisenhower than he did with Clinton and Obama.”
Mr. Meacham said the current world of cable talk and relentless partisanship took shape during Mr. Bush’s era. “He saw it all coming, and he didn’t like it,” he said.
Mark K. Updegrove, the author of “The Last Republicans,” about the two Bush presidencies, said, “In so many ways, Bush was the antithesis of the Republican leadership we see today.” He embodied, Mr. Updegrove added, “the humility, civility and self-sacrifice of the best of the World War II generation. He played tough but fair, making friends on both sides of the aisle and rejecting the notion of politics as a zero-sum game.”
For all of the condolences and tributes pouring in to the Bush home in Houston from every corner of the world on Saturday, Mr. Trump’s very presidency stands as a rebuke to Mr. Bush. Never a proponent of “kinder and gentler” politics, Mr. Trump prefers a brawl, even with his own party. The “new world order” of free-trade, alliance-building internationalism that Mr. Bush championed has been replaced by Mr. Trump’s “America First” defiance of globalism.
In effect, Mr. Trump has demonstrated that he sees the go-along-to-get-along style that defined Mr. Bush’s presidency as inadequate to advance the nation in a hostile world. Gentility and dignity, hallmarks of Mr. Bush, are signs of weakness to Mr. Trump. In his view, Mr. Bush’s version of leadership left the United States exploited by allies and adversaries, whether on economics or security.
Mr. Trump reflected on none of that out loud in the early hours after Mr. Bush’s death, authorizing the release of gracious written statements and canceling a news conference to end his trip to Buenos Aires as a gesture of respect.
“President George H.W. Bush led a long, successful and beautiful life,” Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter on Saturday morning. “Whenever I was with him I saw his absolute joy for life and true pride in his family. His accomplishments were great from beginning to end. He was a truly wonderful man and will be missed by all!”“President George H.W. Bush led a long, successful and beautiful life,” Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter on Saturday morning. “Whenever I was with him I saw his absolute joy for life and true pride in his family. His accomplishments were great from beginning to end. He was a truly wonderful man and will be missed by all!”
Mr. Trump’s words of admiration, delivered while in Argentina for an international summit meeting, belied his history of animosity with the Bush family. Mr. Trump eviscerated Mr. Bush’s son Jeb Bush during the 2016 Republican primaries and regularly disparaged another of his sons, former President George W. Bush, for the way he ran the country. The elder Mr. Bush refused to support Mr. Trump in 2016, voting instead for Hillary Clinton. While many wondered whether he would attend the funeral, given his history of animosity with the Bush family, the White House confirmed that he will. Mr. Trump designated Wednesday as a national day of mourning and planned to participate in services at the Washington National Cathedral.
The passing of the former president had raised the thorny question of whether Mr. Trump would come to the funeral. Senator John McCain, another stalwart of a past Republican generation, made a point of excluding Mr. Trump from his funeral in September, but Mr. Bush was known for New England gentility and seemed less likely to want to make such a statement. It is traditional for the incumbent president to speak at services for a former president, although there have been exceptions. Senator John McCain, another stalwart of a past Republican generation, made a point of excluding Mr. Trump from his funeral in September, but the elder Mr. Bush was known for New England propriety and evidently did not want to break with tradition.
Mr. Trump has not had much experience in his two years in office at playing the role of national healer in moments of mourning like this. His instincts tend toward the bellicose and he has mocked the notion of being presidential. But in the hours since Mr. Bush’s death, he has gone further than he ever did with Mr. McCain in embracing the Bush legacy, aware of the enormous affection for the former president across party lines. Indeed, Mr. Bush was, in effect, president of the presidents’ club, the father of one other commander in chief and the father figure to another, Bill Clinton. Jimmy Carter always appreciated that Mr. Bush’s administration treated him better than Ronald Reagan’s or Mr. Clinton’s, while Barack Obama expressed admiration for the elder Mr. Bush when he ran for the White House.
Mr. Trump’s very presidency, however, stands as a rebuke to Mr. Bush — never a proponent of “kinder and gentler” politics, Mr. Trump prefers a brawl, even with his own party, and represents a more conservative approach to domestic policy at home and an America First policy abroad that repudiates Mr. Bush’s staunch internationalism. In fact, when Mr. Obama visited Houston in 2014 as president, he got off Air Force One to find Mr. Bush waiting for him on the tarmac in a wheelchair. “When the president comes to your hometown,” Mr. Bush explained, “you show up and welcome him.”
In effect, Mr. Trump has made clear that he sees the go-along-to-get-along style that defined Mr. Bush’s presidency as inadequate to advance the nation in a hostile world. Gentility and dignity, hallmarks of Mr. Bush, are signs of weakness to Mr. Trump. As it happened, Mr. Obama was among the last people to see Mr. Bush alive. During a visit to Houston on Tuesday for an appearance at the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy at Rice University, Mr. Obama made a point of stopping by to visit “my buddy 41.” At the institute dinner that night, Mr. Obama said that Mr. Bush and Mr. Baker, his secretary of state, “deserve enormous credit for managing the end of the Cold War.”
His trip here to Buenos Aires, in fact, was built in part around dismantling Mr. Bush’s legacy. Just Friday, Mr. Trump signed a new trade agreement with Mexico and Canada to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement first negotiated by Mr. Bush, which he disparaged as bad for the United States. “The terrible NAFTA will soon be gone,” he wrote on Twitter.
Mr. Trump was never as harsh publicly about the patriarch of the Bush family as he was about its other members, but more than once in recent months, he mocked a famous phrase from the former president’s 1989 inaugural address, “a thousand points of light,” which Mr. Bush used to describe Americans coming together as volunteers to improve their communities and their country.Mr. Trump was never as harsh publicly about the patriarch of the Bush family as he was about its other members, but more than once in recent months, he mocked a famous phrase from the former president’s 1989 inaugural address, “a thousand points of light,” which Mr. Bush used to describe Americans coming together as volunteers to improve their communities and their country.
“What the hell was that, by the way, thousand points of light?” he asked an appreciative crowd at a campaign rally in Great Falls, Montana, in July. “What did that mean? Does anyone know? I know one thing: Make America great again, we understand. Putting America first, we understand. Thousand points of light, I never quite got that one.” “What the hell was that, by the way, thousand points of light?” Mr. Trump asked scornfully at a campaign rally in Great Falls, Mont., in July. “What did that mean? Does anyone know? I know one thing: Make America great again, we understand. Putting America first, we understand. Thousand points of light, I never quite got that one.”
Two months later, he returned to that theme. “It’s so easy to be presidential,” Mr. Trump said at a campaign rally in Wheeling, W.Va. “But instead of having 10,000 people outside trying to get into this packed arena, we’d have about 200 people standing right there. O.K.? It’s so easy to be presidential. All I have to do is ‘Thank you very much for being here, ladies and gentlemen. It’s great to see you off — you’re great Americans. Thousand points of light.’ Which nobody has really figured out.”Two months later, he returned to that theme. “It’s so easy to be presidential,” Mr. Trump said at a campaign rally in Wheeling, W.Va. “But instead of having 10,000 people outside trying to get into this packed arena, we’d have about 200 people standing right there. O.K.? It’s so easy to be presidential. All I have to do is ‘Thank you very much for being here, ladies and gentlemen. It’s great to see you off — you’re great Americans. Thousand points of light.’ Which nobody has really figured out.”
“And in the meantime,” he added, “everything’s going to be dying, and your coal and everything else. No, no. We got to keep it going the way it’s going. Do we agree? Do we agree?”“And in the meantime,” he added, “everything’s going to be dying, and your coal and everything else. No, no. We got to keep it going the way it’s going. Do we agree? Do we agree?”
For his part, Mr. Bush was never impressed by Mr. Trump. “I don’t like him,” Mr. Bush told the historian Mark K. Updegrove in May 2016. “I don’t know much about him, but I know he’s a blowhard. And I’m not too excited about him being a leader.” Rather than being motivated by public service, Mr. Bush said, Mr. Trump seemed to be driven by “a certain ego.” For his part, Mr. Bush was never impressed by Mr. Trump. The two had only passing encounters over the years. In 1988, when Mr. Bush was seeking the presidency, Mr. Trump offered himself as a running mate. Mr. Bush never took the idea seriously, deeming it “strange and unbelievable,” according to “Destiny and Power,” Mr. Meacham’s biography.
But he recognized that Mr. Trump was at the forefront of change. “I’m worried that I will be the last Republican president,” he told Mr. Updegrove, who later wrote “The Last Republicans” about Mr. Bush and George W. Bush. “I don’t like him,” Mr. Bush told Mr. Updegrove in May 2016. “I don’t know much about him, but I know he’s a blowhard. And I’m not too excited about him being a leader.” Rather than being motivated by public service, Mr. Bush said, Mr. Trump seemed to be driven by “a certain ego.”
But Mr. Bush recognized that Mr. Trump was at the forefront of change. “I’m worried that I will be the last Republican president,” he told Mr. Updegrove.
The current president sought to put that history aside on Saturday, even citing Mr. Bush’s “thousand points of light” in the written statement that he authorized aides to release in the immediate hours after the former president’s death.The current president sought to put that history aside on Saturday, even citing Mr. Bush’s “thousand points of light” in the written statement that he authorized aides to release in the immediate hours after the former president’s death.
“President Bush inspired generations of his fellow Americans to public service — to be, in his words, ‘a thousand points of light’ illuminating the greatness, hope, and opportunity of America to the world,” the statement said.“President Bush inspired generations of his fellow Americans to public service — to be, in his words, ‘a thousand points of light’ illuminating the greatness, hope, and opportunity of America to the world,” the statement said.