Any rivalry between Donald Trump and the Bush family will be put aside on Wednesday when the president attends the funeral at the National Cathedral in Washington for former President George H.W. Bush, who died Friday night at the age of 94.
“If anybody at anytime knew anything about the 41st president of the United States, they would completely and totally understand that he would welcome the current occupant 100 percent,” an aide in the office of the former president told Politico. “This is the way the country says goodbye to presidents.”
Bush did not attend the funeral in April of Barbara Bush, who, Politico noted, “had criticized Trump during the 2016 campaign for saying ‘terrible things’ about women and the military, and was long displeased with Trump’s insults toward her husband and sons.”
In Argentina on Saturday for the G20, Trump said he spoke with former President George W. Bush and Jeb Bush that morning to offer condolences.
Trump described the late president Bush as a “wonderful” and “very fine man,” confirming he will attend the ceremony Wednesday with his wife, Melania.
CNN reported Trump will not give a eulogy, as have previous presidents for such occasions. Instead, he will meet privately Tuesday with the Bush family at Blair House, across the street from the White House.
‘Where are we going, Bake?’
George H.W. Bush’s final days were movingly recounted by New York Times White House correspondent Peter Baker.
The Times reporter spoke with the 41st president’s longtime friend and former secretary of state and chief of staff, James A. Baker III, who was at Bush’s Houston home Friday morning to check on him.
Bush suddenly grew alert, his eyes wide open, the Times reported.
“Where are we going, Bake?” he asked.
“We’re going to heaven,” Baker answered.
A little more than 13 hours later, surrounded by several friends and family members, Bush was dead.
Earlier Friday evening, his son George W. Bush was put on the speaker phone to say goodbye.
The 43rd president told him he had been a “wonderful dad” and that he loved him.
“I love you, too,” Bush told his son.
Those were his last words, according to the former secretary of state.
Baker said Bush’s final days were remarkably peaceful.
“I can’t even hardly talk about it without welling up,” Baker told the Times. “It was as gentle a passing as I think you could ever expect anyone to have. And he was ready.”
The Times also spoke with Rev. Dr. Russell Jones Levenson Jr., rector of St. Martin’s Episcopal Church in Houston, who said the former president was comforted that he would soon rejoin Barbara and Robin, their daughter, who died in 1953 of leukemia at the age of 3.
“There was no question he knew where he was going and who he was going to be with,” the pastor said.
The Times reported Ronan Tynan, the Irish tenor, dropped by and sang “Silent Night” to the former president.
Baker, who held Bush’s hand, said that as Tynan sang, “believe it or not, the president was mouthing the words.”
At 10:10 p.m., the former president was gone.
“If those things could be sweet,” Baker told the Times, “it was sweet.”
