Former President George W. Bush is not expected to attend a White House ceremony Thursday honoring his late mother, former First Lady Barbara Bush, a notable absence that follows years of lingering tensions between the Bush family and Donald Trump.
First Lady Melania Trump is set to host the East Room event, where she will unveil a new postage stamp commemorating the wife of former President George H.W. Bush, The Washington Post reported Tuesday. While Bush’s snub of the gathering has been confirmed by White House officials, other members of the Bush family are expected to attend.
“Attendees include Doro Bush Koch, George W. Bush’s younger sister who is listed as one of several featured speakers at the unveiling, and Alice Yates, chief executive of the George and Barbara Bush Foundation,” according to the Post report.
While the former Republican president has acknowledged Trump’s political victories in the past, he has repeatedly kept his distance from the MAGA leader for years, the Post pointed out. He declined to endorse Trump in any of his three presidential bids and did not vote for him in 2016 or 2020, instead writing in Condoleezza Rice, his former secretary of state and national security adviser, in the election five years ago.
Trump, for his part, has taken multiple swipes at Bush, criticizing his presidency as “uninspiring” and blaming him for getting the U.S. “into the quicksand of the Middle East (and then not winning!)” according to the Post.