{"id":192734,"date":"2018-12-06T05:58:25","date_gmt":"2018-12-06T10:58:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=192734"},"modified":"2018-12-06T05:58:25","modified_gmt":"2018-12-06T10:58:25","slug":"trump-odd-man-out-as-presidents-assemble-for-bush-funeral","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/12\/06\/trump-odd-man-out-as-presidents-assemble-for-bush-funeral\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump odd man out as presidents assemble for Bush funeral"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
FILE: President Donald J. Trump and First Lady Melania Trump pay their respects as Former President George H. W. Bush lies in state in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol. (Photo<\/a> By House Photographer Eric Connolly via @ushousephoto\/Instagram<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 There was no mistaking the odd man out.<\/p>\n

The Washington funeral service for former President George H.W.\u00a0Bush\u00a0served as a rare reunion of the remaining members of the presidents club, but the front-row banter among Barack Obama, Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter and their spouses came to an uneasy end when President Donald Trump and wife Melania arrived.<\/p>\n

The Wednesday encounter was a real-time illustration of the uneasy ties between the current occupant of the White House and his predecessors, suggesting Trump as a member-in-name-only of the Oval Office fraternity. While the funeral ceremony itself was a warm celebration of the late president, the relationships between the surviving presidents are considerably cooler.<\/p>\n

Trump gave the two Obamas a handshake before taking his seat in Washington’s National Cathedral without greeting the others. Hillary Clinton nodded at Melania Trump but then stared straight ahead.<\/p>\n

The last of the five presidents to arrive was George W.\u00a0Bush, who made a point to shake hands with all four couples \u2014 and appeared to share a moment of humour with Michelle Obama, slipping something into her hand.\u00a0Bush\u00a0then took his seat with the rest of the\u00a0Bush\u00a0family, across the aisle from the ex-presidents.<\/p>\n

Some discomfort with Trump was perhaps to be expected.<\/p>\n

Since his swearing-in, Trump has spurned most contact with his predecessors \u2014 and they have snubbed him in return. But while the staid group of Oval Office occupants has been disrupted since Donald Trump’s election, the Bushes had made it known to the White House months ago that, despite differences in policy and temperament, the late president wanted Trump to attend the national service.<\/p>\n

The ceremony’s tributes at times stood as an unspoken counterpoint to Trump’s leadership, as historian Jon Meacham eulogized\u00a0Bush\u00a0by recounting his life’s credo: \u201cTell the truth, don’t blame people, be strong, do your best, try hard, forgive, stay the course.\u201d George W.\u00a0Bush\u00a0added of his father: \u201cHe could tease and needle, but not out of malice.\u201d<\/p>\n

The late\u00a0Bush\u00a0was the de facto chair of the modern incarnation of the president’s club, transcending contentious campaigns and party lines to bring together fractious personalities who share that rarified experience.<\/p>\n

Trump has sought to meet the elder\u00a0Bush’s passing with grace, a contrast to the rhythms of much of his tumultuous presidency. He came to office after a campaign in which he harshly criticized his Democratic predecessors and co-opted a Republican Party once dominated by the\u00a0Bush\u00a0family. Despite the traditional kinship among presidents, Trump’s predecessors have all made their discomfort known in different ways.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s unusual that a cabal of ex-presidents from both parties dislike a sitting president and that’s what you’ve got happening right now,\u201d said Douglas Brinkley, a history professor at Rice University.<\/p>\n

The Trump-Obama handshake marked the first direct interaction between the current president and his immediate predecessor since Inauguration Day 2017. Trump has not spoken to Democrats Clinton or Obama since that day.<\/p>\n

He did speak with the younger\u00a0Bush\u00a0during the contentious confirmation process for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, as the previous Republican president helped lobby for his former aide. Democrat Carter has been briefed by White House officials on North Korea, though it was not clear if he has engaged directly with Trump.<\/p>\n

By virtue of health, longevity and opportunities for continued influence, ex-presidents are sticking around longer than ever and staying active in the public eye.<\/p>\n

Past presidents often built relationships with their predecessors, Brinkley said. \u201cBill Clinton would reach out to Richard Nixon for advice on Russia,\u201d he said. \u201cHarry Truman leaned heavily on Herbert Hoover. It’s endless.\u201d<\/p>\n

To be sure, Brinkley added, those ties vary from president to president and there have been chilly relationships as well, noting, for example, that \u201cFDR would never talk to Herbert Hoover.\u201d<\/p>\n

Busy with a mix of personal pursuits, charitable endeavours \u2014 and, in some cases, paid speaking gigs \u2014 the former leaders don’t mingle very often, making a funeral in their group a big occasion. Bonded by the presidency, they tend to exercise caution in their comments about each other. Still, all the living former presidents have aimed barbs \u2014 directly or indirectly \u2014 at Trump.<\/p>\n

In a speech in September, Obama slammed the \u201ccrazy stuff\u201d coming out of the White House without directly naming Trump. Last year, the younger\u00a0Bush\u00a0made a speech that confronted many of the themes of Trump’s presidency without mentioning him by name, cautioning that \u201cbigotry seems emboldened\u201d and the nation’s politics \u201cseems more vulnerable to conspiracy theories and outright fabrication.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the summer, Carter told The Washington Post that Trump’s presidency was a \u201cdisaster.\u201d And Clinton \u2014 stung by Trump’s defeat of wife Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential race \u2014 told a weekly newspaper in New York state after her stunning loss that Trump \u201cdoesn’t know much.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even the late\u00a0Bush’s feelings about Trump were harsh at times. In Mark K. Updegrove’s book \u201cThe Last Republicans,\u201d published last year, the elder\u00a0Bush\u00a0called Trump a \u201cblowhard.\u201d<\/p>\n

The late\u00a0Bush\u00a0said he voted for Clinton in 2016 while George W.\u00a0Bush\u00a0said he voted for \u201cnone of the above.\u201d<\/p>\n

There have been other moments when the ex-presidents offered more sympathetic sentiments for Trump. After Trump’s surprise victory, Obama stood in the Rose Garden at the White House and said he was \u201crooting\u201d for the next president. Carter told The New York Times in 2017 the media had been harder on Trump than other presidents. Clinton said in June that America should be rooting for Trump to succeed in his North Korea talks.<\/p>\n

While he has struggled to set the right tone in past moments of national grief, Trump has gone out of his way to address\u00a0Bush’s passing with consideration, issuing kind statements and ensuring that\u00a0Bushfamily members have whatever they need for the funeral. On Tuesday, first lady Melania Trump welcomed Laura\u00a0Bush\u00a0and other family members for a tour of the White House Christmas decorations. And Trump and the first lady visited with members of the\u00a0Bush\u00a0family at Blair House.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2014 There was no mistaking the odd man out. The Washington funeral service for former President George H.W.\u00a0Bush\u00a0served as …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":192738,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-192734","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-w","mauthors-catherine-lucey-and-zeke-miller","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=192734"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192734\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/192738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=192734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=192734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=192734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}