Back in the 1980s, former first lady Barbara Bush referred to then-real estate mogul Donald Trump as the “real symbol of greed.”
Flash forward to 2016, when Trump was running against her son Jeb Bush for president — and referring to him as “low energy Jeb” — Barbara Bush’s opinion of the Republican frontrunner hadn’t changed much.
According to an excerpt of a new book, “The Matriarch: Barbara Bush and the Making of an American Dynasty” by Susan Page published in USA Today, Barbara Bush blamed Trump for heart-related hospitalization in June 2016.
“The tumultuous presidential campaign in general and Trump’s ridicule of son Jeb Bush in particular had riled her. ‘Angst,’ she told me,” the excerpt reads.
And President Trump’s eventual presidency did more than impact Barbara Bush’s health. In February 2018, the former first lady — and the matriarch of an entire generation of conservatives — told Page that she no longer considered herself a Republican.
“I’d probably say no today,” she reportedly said.
Read the full excerpt here.
