Former first lady Barbara Bush got candid in the final months before her death, blaming President Trump for her heart attack and saying she didn’t consider herself a Republican.
Bush died in April 2018 at age 92, shortly after her family announced she was in failing health. Her husband, former President George H.W. Bush passed away a few months later in November at age 94.
According to an excerpt from the upcoming book “The Matriarch: Barbara Bush and the Making of an American Dynasty,” author Susan Page, who is also USA Today’s Washington bureau chief, asked the former first lady in October 2017 if she considered herself a Republican. Bush said she did. However, when Bush was asked the same question in February 2018, she had a different answer.
“I’d probably say no today,” she replied.
Bush was hesitant to campaign for her son Jeb when he launched his 2016 presidential bid because she saw first-hand from her husband and other son, George W., how “brutal” the presidency — and the road to it — could be. She said she decided to campaign for Jeb because he was her child and “because she was alarmed by Trump,” Page wrote.
BARBARA BUSH, FORMER FIRST LADY, DEAD AT 92
Jeb Bush ended up dropping out of the race after a poor showing in the South Carolina primary.
In 2016, Barbara Bush suffered what she called a “heart attack” and blamed the episode on the presidential campaign and Trump’s constant ridicule of Jeb during the election cycle. – READ MORE