Honoring the 41st President cast a poor light on the 45th.<\/b>
\nTeaching undergraduate American government classes twenty years ago, it was seemingly impossible not to stumble into double entendres about the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal. Now, it\u2019s virtually impossible to praise a departed leader without drawing a stark contrast with the current president.
Philip Rucker, WaPo (\u201c Bush funeral: Trump sits with fellow presidents but still stands alone \u201c):
From the moment he crossed the transept of the soaring Washington National Cathedral, tore off his overcoat and took his seat in the front pew, President Trump was an outsider.
When the others sang an opening hymn, his mouth did not move. When the others read the Apostles\u2019 Creed, he stood stoically. And when one eulogist after another testified to George H. W. Bush\u2019s integrity and character and honesty and bravery and compassion, Trump sat and listened, often with his lips pursed and his arms crossed over his chest.
Wednesday\u2019s state funeral was carefully orchestrated to be about one man and his milestones \u2014 Bush the father, the friend, the war hero and the lifelong public servant. But inevitably it became about Trump, too, for it was impossible to pay tribute to the 41st president without drawing implicit contrasts with the 45th.
\u201cHis life code was: \u2018Tell the truth. Don\u2019t blame people. Be strong. Do your best. Try hard. Forgive. Stay the course,\u2019 \u201d Bush biographer Jon Meacham said in his eulogy. \u201cAnd that was, and is, the most American of creeds.\u201d
The mourners did not deliver the searing rebukes of Trump the nation witnessed in September for the funeral of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).
But despite being crafted to honor Bush\u2019s legacy, their words also served to underscore the singular nature of Trump\u2019s presidency.
Trump was in the company of all his living predecessors for the first time Wednesday, and the encounter was plainly uncomfortable. By 10:49 a.m., when Trump and first lady Melania Trump stepped into the cathedral, a cool hush had come over the pews filled by American dignitaries and foreign leaders, past and present. Trump handed his black overcoat to a military aide and took his seat on the aisle next to his wife, with three past presidents and first ladies seated to her side.
First was the president Trump said was illegitimate (Barack Obama); then the first lady he called a profligate spender of taxpayer dollars (Michelle Obama); then the president he called the worst abuser of women (Bill Clinton); then the first lady and secretary of state he said should be in jail (Hillary Clinton); and then the president he said was the second-worst behind Obama (Jimmy Carter) and his wife, Rosalynn.
The Trumps and the Obamas greeted each other brusquely, but only Melania Trump reached over to shake hands with Bill Clinton. Hillary Clinton did not acknowledge the Trumps, keeping her gaze straight ahead as if determined not to make eye contact with the man who continues, two years after the 2016 election, to inspire \u201cLock her up!\u201d chants at his rallies.
The frostiness of Trump\u2019s interactions with his predecessors was all the more apparent when former president George W. Bush entered the cathedral a few minutes later. Bush shook hands cheerfully with each of the other presidents and first ladies. He slipped what appeared to be a candy to a smiling Michelle Obama \u2014 a reminder of McCain\u2019s funeral, when video of Bush giving Obama candies went viral on social media.
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The first of Bush\u2019s five eulogists at Wednesday\u2019s funeral was Meacham, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who grew close to Bush as he researched the former president\u2019s life for the 2015 biography, \u201cDestiny and Power.\u201d Meacham explained what Bush meant by his famous volunteerism phrase \u201ca thousand points of light,\u201d which Trump mocked this summer as an ineffective and confusing slogan.
\u201cAbraham Lincoln\u2019s \u2018better angels of our nature\u2019 and George H. W. Bush\u2019s \u2018thousand points of light\u2019 are companion verses in America\u2019s national hymn, for Lincoln and Bush both called on us to choose the right over the convenient, to hope rather than to fear, and to heed not our worst impulses but our best instincts,\u201d Meacham said.
The next eulogist, former Canadian prime minister Brian Mulroney, praised three of Bush\u2019s achievements in office \u2014 negotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement, the Americans With Disabilities Act and the Clean Air Act.
\u201cThere\u2019s a word for this. It\u2019s called \u2018leadership,\u2019 \u201d Mulroney said. \u201cLeadership. And let me tell you that when George Bush was president of the United States of America, every single head of government in the world knew that they were dealing with a gentleman, a genuine leader \u2014 one who was distinguished, resolute and brave.\u201d
It was not lost on the audience that Trump has slammed NAFTA as one of the worst trade deals ever; mocked a journalist\u2019s physical disability; and rolled back scores of environmental regulations.
Trump sat through much of Mulroney\u2019s speech crossing his arms over his chest or holding his hands between his knees, at times leaning forward in his seat.
John F. Harris, Politico Magazine (\u201c Bush\u2019s Funeral Wasn\u2019t About Trump. But Of Course It Was. \u201c):
The memorial service for George H. W. Bush was a perfectly civil and eminently civilized event, and if one was listening in a literal-minded way it all sounded like a grand exception to life in modern Washington\u2014two hours of stories and tributes that were entirely bereft of political tension.
The only way to listen in a literal frame of mind, of course, was through some equivalent of self-lobotomy\u2014to be willfully oblivious of context, guileless in a way that certainly does not describe Bush or any of the people he chose to speak at his farewell.
The service was replete with praise for the 41st president that could, with just the slightest nudge of interpretation, be heard as implied rebuke of the 45th president. But only implied, never explicit\u2014this, unlike almost everything else in American politics today, was not about Donald Trump.
And yet it very much was. Speakers rhapsodized about Bush\u2019s natural good cheer and optimism; his willingness to share credit and accept blame; his preference for self-deprecating humor; his gift for personal diplomacy; his loyalty to friends when they were down; his talent at assembling international coalitions; his mistrust of \u201cunthinking partisanship\u201d; his inaugural address in which he said that Americans must judge our lives by kindness to friends and neighbors rather than the pursuit of \u201ca bigger car, a bigger bank account\u201d; his commitment to truth and to living up to the obligations of a \u201cgentleman.\u201d
Who wouldn\u2019t admire these traits? Or expect that any president should try to emulate them?
To be political while sounding apolitical is a lost art in contemporary times, and it would be hard for President Trump to claim injury because his name was never mentioned. President George W. Bush\u2014who, like his father, broke with his party in not supporting Trump\u2014swerved skillfully around that by starting his remarks by thanking \u201cdistinguished guests\u201d and then, with seeming emphasis, adding \u201cincluding our presidents and first ladies\u201d but mentioning none of them by name.
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Three months ago, the same space\u2014the Washington National Cathedral\u2014hosted another memorial service after the passing of Sen. John McCain. Like Bush, he had the lead time to carefully plan his own service, which became weaponized after a dying McCain made clear that he did not want the man who derided him for having been captured in Vietnam to be present. The Bush family, by contrast, was willing to set aside its disdain for Trump\u2014the taunts of \u201clow-energy\u201d Jeb, the relentless criticism of George W.\u2019s Iraq war. Whether out of respect for the office or a desire to avoid another politicized Washington funeral, they made it clear that their leader had very much wanted the current president to be there, and in remarks in recent days family members had emphasized that Trump has been \u201cvery gracious.\u201d Assuming that comment to be entirely sincere, it is still a shrewdly effective way to shift the week\u2019s events toward ground\u2014polite, decorous, devoid of controversy\u2014that is hardly Trump\u2019s natural terrain. One supposes that he was not sorry when the plane that is normally Air Force One lifted off to carry the 41st president back to Texas for burial, allowing Washington to return to normal business for the first time since Friday evening.
The commentariat\u2019s focus on Bush\u2019s contrast with Trump tended to take attention from what might otherwise have been the dominant motif of the memorial service: the contrast, and communion, between generations.
Catherine Lucey and Zeke Miller, Associated Press (\u201c Trump odd man out as presidents assemble for Bush funeral \u201c):
There was no mistaking the odd man out.
Wednesday\u2019s funeral service for former President George H. W. Bush served 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.
The 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.
Trump gave the two Obamas a handshake before taking his seat in Washington\u2019s National Cathedral without greeting the others. Hillary Clinton nodded at Melania Trump but then stared straight ahead.
The last of the five presidents to arrive was George W. Bush, who made a point to shake hands with all four couples \u2014 and appeared to share a moment of humor with Michelle Obama, slipping something into her hand. Bush then took his seat with the rest of the Bush family, across the aisle from the ex-presidents.
Some discomfort with Trump was perhaps to be expected.
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\u2019s 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.
The ceremony\u2019s tributes at times stood as an unspoken counterpoint to Trump\u2019s leadership, as historian Jon Meacham eulogized Bush by recounting his life\u2019s credo: \u201cTell the truth, don\u2019t blame people, be strong, do your best, try hard, forgive, stay the course.\u201d George W. Bush added of his father: \u201cHe could tease and needle, but not out of malice.\u201d
The late Bush was the de facto chair of the modern incarnation of the president\u2019s club, transcending contentious campaigns and party lines to bring together fractious personalities who share that rarified experience.
Trump has sought to meet the elder Bush\u2019s 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 Bush family. Despite the traditional kinship among presidents, Trump\u2019s predecessors have all made their discomfort known in different ways.
\u201cIt\u2019s unusual that a cabal of ex-presidents from both parties dislike a sitting president and that\u2019s what you\u2019ve got happening right now,\u201d said Douglas Brinkley, a history professor at Rice University.
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.
He did speak with the younger Bush during 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.
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.
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\u2019s endless.\u201d
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
Busy with a mix of personal pursuits, charitable endeavors \u2014 and, in some cases, paid speaking gigs \u2014 the former leaders don\u2019t 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.
Barack Obama frequently described the presidency as a relay race, in which the current occupant advanced the baton as far as one could before handing off to the next, hoping that they would continue advancing the interests of the country. With rare exception, because it\u2019s such a small club, the members have a special bond that transcends the nastiness of campaigns and inevitable disputes over policy. While he\u2019s officially a member of the club, Trump isn\u2019t accepted as one of them. One simply can\u2019t imagine him being asked, as all of the living former Presidents\u2014and quite notably the man being honored yesterday\u2014were, to serve as a goodwill ambassador for the country one he\u2019s out of office.<\/p>\n