That’s great news because, well, he is Bush. And the Bush family, who had long been the first family of Republican politics, were not big fans of Trump. Jeb Bush announced in May 2016 that
he will not vote for Trump in the general election after he lost to Trump in primary 2016 – where the billionaire repeatedly mocked the former governor as “low energy.” And in a 2019 interview with CNN’s David Axelrod, Jeb pushed the main challenge for Trump. “To talk about what it is to be conservative, I think it’s important,” he said.
Regardless of who the elders want to be elected by Bush, there is little debate that families who have produced two of the last three Republican presidents are not really dealing directly with current White House residents – and vice versa.
Last month, after George W. Bush
released a video calling for national unity and shared sacrifice on the face in an ongoing coronavirus pandemic,
Trump tweeted this:
“Oh, bye (sic), I appreciate the message from former President Bush, but where he was during the Impeachment called for setting aside alignments.” @foxandfriends He can’t be found speaking out against the biggest lie in American history! “
That difficult feeling came back – because Trump had long used Bush’s image as the main insider to ignite the confidence of his own outsiders.
“We need another Bush in the office as much as we need Obama to have a third term,” Trump tweeted in 2013. “No more Bush!”
As the 2016 campaign intensified, Trump focused his attention on Jeb Bush, who was briefly considered a front runner in the early days of the race, with a relentless attack on his family’s legacy.
“The war in Iraq was a big, fat mistake,”
Trump said in the debate in February 2016. “They lied. They said there were weapons of mass destruction. Nothing.”
The Bush family retaliated. “(Trump) doesn’t give many answers to how he will solve the problem,” Barbara Bush, former first lady and mother George and Jeb, told CNN in 2016. “He sort of made a face and said insulting things. He said things bad things about women, bad things about the military. I don’t understand why people want it, for that reason. “
Trump, because he is Trump, has never apologized for everything he said about Jeb and the Bush family during the main election. And Bush, while they are calmer about their hatred for Trump, has never really backed down either.
So why did George P. Bush not only say he planned to vote for Trump but also gave Trump-y’s clear quote – “President Trump is the only one standing between America and socialism” – to media organizations? After all, Trump did repeatedly kill his father personally. And
Trump retweeted (and then deleted) the tweet which reads “#JebBush must like the Illegal of Mexico because of his wife” during the campaign too. (Jeb Bush’s wife and George P. Bush’s mother, Columba, are of Mexican descent.)
The answer? Political, pure and simple.
George P. Bush is in offices throughout the state now. (Yes, the Land Commissioner is the state-elect office in Texas!) One day he will run for governor. While Texas does not limit the term of office of its governor, Governor Greg Abbott will spend eight years serving 2022 and
might have eyes to run for Republican presidential candidate in 2024.
There were already ambitious Republican lines ready and waiting to run if that happens – or if Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick retires or decides to run for open governor. And Bush really wants to be in the mix for one of those offices.
And the simple fact – which George P. knows – is that there is NO reasonable way for the Republican nomination for governor or lieutenant governor in Texas as something less than Trump’s vocal supporters and voters. For all problems with wider voters –
in Texas and nationally – Trump remains a highly respected figure in the Republic of Texas, and it is very difficult to imagine that change between now and 2022, even if the President is unsuccessful in his efforts for the second term of November.
It’s also not just that voters will rebel against George P. This is that Trump will enjoy the opportunity – whether in the office or outside the office – to stick it to the Bush family once again by working to keep George P. from winning offices across the entire state. higher. (If you don’t think Trump is vengeful enough to do that, let me refer you, yeah, all his life.) So George P. does the only thing he can do to safeguard his political future: Stand absolutely in line with Trump.
By doing that, George P. supports a man who spends more than a year personally attacking his father, mother, uncle and grandfather at every opportunity.
Ah, politics. Not for the faint of heart. Or stomach.