Family and Friends of the Bush family were at the White House on Thursday for the unveiling of a U.S. Postal Service stamp honoring former first lady Barbara Bush, but her son, former President George W. Bush, was notably absent.
First lady Melania Trump hosted the ceremony in the East Room honoring the former first lady, who died in 2018 at the age of 92.
“Mrs. Bush’s legacy is marked by her respect for tradition while also breaking with convention,” Trump said at the event, according to ABC News.
Bush’s daughter, Dorothy Bush Koch was at the event and gave a speech.
Other Bush children, including former President George W. Bush, did not attend the ceremony.
Bush has kept his distance from Trump despite being members of the same party. He attended Trump’s inaugurations but Bush did not endorse Trump in his three presidential runs and did not vote for him in 2016 or 2020.
In 2017, Bush gave a speech condemning Trump’s style of politics and expressed concerns about his impact on the Republican Party. He also criticized Trump after the Jan. 6, 2021 attack at the Capitol.
After Bush gave a speech in 2021 marking the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, in which he warned that domestic terrorism posed as much of a threat as foreign terrorists, Trump responded by saying he “led a failed and uninspiring presidency. He shouldn’t be lecturing anybody!”
Trump also blamed Bush for getting the U.S. “into the quicksand of the Middle East (and then not winning!)”
