Barbara Bush blamed Trump for ‘angst,’ new book reveals
ASSOCIATED PRESS / 2009
This photo shows former first lady Barbara Bush during the third inning of a Major League Baseball game in Houston. In excepts of an upcoming biography, “The Matriarch,” published today in USA Today, the former first lady discussed how her trouble with congestive heart failure and chronic pulmonary disease were aggravated by Trump’s attacks on her son, Jeb, during the Republican presidential primaries. Bush was 92 when she died in April 2018.
WASHINGTON >> Barbara Bush says Donald Trump caused her “angst” during the 2016 election and led her to question whether she was still a Republican in the months before she died.
The late former first lady’s thoughts about Trump were revealed in excerpts published today in USA Today of an upcoming biography, “The Matriarch.”
In a February 2018 interview, Bush was asked if she still considered herself a Republican. She replied, “I’d probably say ‘no’ today.”
She died in April at age 92.
Bush recalls drafting a funny letter to mail after the election congratulating Bill Clinton on becoming a presidential spouse. But Bush said when she woke up, she realized “to my horror that Trump had won.”
A friend gave Bush a clock that counted down the time remaining in Trump’s first term that she kept at her bedside.
