The Bush family and the Trump family have a complicated relationship. And both families have a complicated way of orbiting one another. Melania Trump got up and badly read a few paragraphs, which is her wont to do these days. Maybe it’s my imagination but I do think that in the first administration that Melania made an effort to sound like she understood what she was reading and this time out, she doesn’t even bother. But give credit where credit is due, Mel probably made as much as one or even two middle class families make all year just for muttering some sounds on camera today for a few minutes. Nice work if you can get it.
BREAKING: Melania Trump unveiled the Barbara Bush stamp.
Barbara Bush famously said she didn’t understand how any woman could vote for Donald Trump.
George W. Bush was asked to attend and he declined.
— CALL TO ACTIVISM (@CalltoActivism) May 8, 2025
Donald Trump was pointedly not invited to Barbara Bush’s funeral, like he was pointedly not invited to John McCain’s. There is a certain politesse amongst the renowned Republican families and if you’re a McCain or a Bush you’re established enough to let it be known that you don’t want Trump around and make it stick.
Dubya would likely have made the decision to keep Trump from H.W.’s funeral but that was slightly different, involving not just the Bush family but H.W. as a recently deceased U.S. president and the presidents’ club was and is a small one. So Trump was grudingly extended an invitation, for protocol’s sake, and everybody simply prayed that he would behave himself somewhat.
Dubya did make the decision to stay away from this occasion today honoring his late mother. That’s because the honor is back in the ballpark of family first and not U.S. presidents’ club first, and Dubya didn’t want to go. I take my hat off to him that he didn’t make his wife go. I’m sure Laura really did not want to go.
Once again, the Trumps can squeak back into office and people will tolerate them. To an extent. But time and again there are moments like these where the real undercurrent of feeling comes out and you see how hated the Trumps are.
I think Melania knows that and I think that her slurring through the material, rather than taking an extra hour or so to prepare properly, is her way of saying “fuck you back” to the people, Dubya included, who don’t like hubby or her by extension.
The sublime irony is, of course, that if anybody loathes Donald Trump, it is Melania. But she’s making it worth her while financially. She does have that going. Too bad they didn’t have a second kid, they could have named him RICO, since rackeeteering comes so easily to the both of them. Witness the killing they made in bitcoin after the last election.
Mother. and she was a MF alright