Barbara Bush has posthumously called out President Donald Trump in a new biography about the influential former first lady.
Author Susan Page, the Washington Bureau chief of USA Today, detailed Bush’s thoughts on Trump and the Republican Party in her upcoming book, “The Matriarch: Barbara Bush and the Making of an American Dynasty.” Page, who assembled the book based on interviews and notes from the former first lady’s personal journals, wrote about it Wednesday in USA Today.
According to excerpts from a news release, Bush, who died in April at age 92, blamed Trump for her heart issues.
“The tumultuous presidential campaign in general and Trump’s ridicule of son Jeb Bush in particular had riled her,” Page wrote in USA Today. “‘Angst,’ she told me.”
Here are more excerpts, according to the release:
— Barbara Bush said that by today’s terms, she would not classify herself as a Republican. With Trump’s rise, she saw a party she could not continue to support.
— Barbara Bush was hesitant for Jeb Bush to run for office – but she agreed because she was very alarmed by Trump
— Barbara Bush could not understand how people could be for him and expressed astonishment that women could support him.
— Bush 41 ended up voting for Clinton – the first time he voted for a Democrat. Barbara could not vote for Clinton or Trump. She wrote in Jeb’s name.
— Barbara Bush’s disdain for Trump started a long time ago. In her diaries in 1990s she called Trump “greedy, selfish and ugly.”
— Trump called to say he would be Bush 41’s running mate, and Bush 41 dismissed it as “strange and unbelievable.”
— Bush 41 called Trump post 2016 election – Trump was very nice/conciliatory
— Barbara Bush wrote a nice note to Melania Trump offering first lady advice, although it was not the letter she had expected to write. She had already written one to Bill Clinton about taking over the role of presidential spouse.
— Barbara Bush kept a Trump Countdown clock, and it sat next to her bed until the day she died.
At Bush’s funeral April 18, Trump paid tribute to her, calling her “a wonderful, wonderful person.”
“For decades, Barbara was a titan in American life,” he said. “Her presence and character were engraved into America’s identity. Her strength and toughness really embodied the spirit of our country, and her warmth and devotion earned the admiration of an entire nation and indeed, the entire world. She was a tireless champion for literacy, she was a fierce advocate for the American family and she was a woman of proud patriotism and profound faith.”