Former President George HW Bush was never a fan of Donald Trump, so much so that in the early 1990s he hid behind a newspaper to avoid speaking to him.
The story was remembered by New York Times correspondent Maggie Haberman, who revealed how the resignation of Donald Trump by former HW Bush during the chance meeting at the airport led Trump to shun the Bushes in return for decades.
Haberman, who also serves as a CNN analyst, is currently touring to promote her all-encompassing book released last Tuesday, Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America.
During a one-on-one conversation with Kaitlan Collins, CNN’s Chief White House Correspondent at a bookstore in Washington DC, Haberman explained how she left out the anecdote that somewhat explains Trump’s long-standing relationship with the Bushes.
“They were things I couldn’t confirm enough that I felt comfortable… but I heard two stories after I finished the book that I would have recorded if I could have,” Haberman teased.
New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman, pictured, said that despite writing a 608-page book, there are several anecdotes that have been omitted beyond her narration about Trump.
“One is HW Bush, who might just be out of the office for a year or two, at JFK Airport. He is getting ready to go to a speech abroad. And he reads a newspaper, possibly a newspaper I work for. And someone comes up to him and says, “Excuse me, Mr. President, Donald Trump is here and he’s wondering if you want to meet him.”
“Bush pulls the paper down and says ‘no’, then goes back to it. And so began a decades-long warmth towards the Bushes,” she joked.
The reactions sparked laughter from those present at the Politics and prose bookstore in the country’s capital.
“That’s why he hates the bushes. So that’s [the] one,” Haberman added.
Book author Maggie Haberman, right, was portrayed as interviews by journalist and chief White House correspondent for CNN, Kaitlan Collins
The story Haberman told about the Bushes seemed to make the audience laugh
Then-Republican presidential hopeful Vice President George Bush is pictured socializing with real estate mogul Donald & Ivana Trump during campaign event at New York’s Waldorf Astoria in 1988
There was famously no love lost between the Bush family and the Trumps. Pictured in 2009, former President George HW Bush poses with his sons, former President George W. Bush and Jeb Bush
President George HW Bush holds a press conference at the White House in June 1989
The anecdote was previously told by author Mark Updegrove’s 2017 book called The Last Republicans. The details are similar, although the meeting takes place at Boston’s Logan Airport
It is well documented how Trump has made a number of derogatory comments about the Bush family over the years and even mocked HW’s campaign rhetoric in the past.
The anecdote was previously told by author Mark Updegrove’s 2017 book called The Last Republicans. The details are similar, although the meeting takes place at Boston Logan Airport.
The 41st president had little respect for Trump and was often candid about his disdain for Trump and Trumpism.
The late Bush Sr. was once quoted by saying, ‘I don’t like him. I don’t know much about him, but I know he is a hard worker. And I’m not that excited that he’s a leader.”
Bush Sr., who did not support a candidate in the 2016 election and ended up voting for Democrat Hillary Clinton.
Trump seems to be widely disliked within the Bush family for belittling low energy Jeb Bush while beating him in the 2016 Republican primary.
Jeb shot back, to remark that he goes home to children ‘who really love me’.
The late Barbara Bush, Bush Sr.’s wife, called Trump a “showman” and said she didn’t understand why people liked him.
Haberman, who has spent years breaking insider scoops on the Trump administration, has released an all-encompassing edition: Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America
Former President Donald Trump seen onstage at a Sunday night rally in Mesa, Arizona
‘Here we go again! There’s another fake book out, this supposedly very boring and old self-proclaimed principal Failing (Unfunded Liability!) New York Times writer, Maggie Hagerman,” Trump wrote on Truth Social last month.
Haberman’s coverage has long confused the former president, leading him to call her “Maggot” Haberman, but he agreed to sit down with her three times over the course of her reporting for the book.
‘I love being with her; she’s like my psychiatrist,” Trump told Haberman’s aides.
‘Here we go again! Another fake book is out, this supposedly very dull and old, self-proclaimed principal, Failing (Unfunded Liability!) New York Times writer, Maggie Hagerman,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
In it she tells a lot of made-up stories, without any actual verification or confirmation by anyone who would know, like me. In one case, she lies that I want to fire my daughter, Ivanka and Jared. WRONG, pure fiction. It didn’t even occur to me. You just have to fight against making creeps like Maggie, and all the rest!’
Last week, Haberman revealed how those close to Donald Trump predict he will run again in 2024, despite many saying his “heart isn’t in it.”
“Once he says he isn’t, he’s irrelevant,” Haberman explained Politics.
The late Barbara Bush, wife of Bush Sr., called Trump a ‘showman’ and said she didn’t understand why people liked him
“Everyone I talk to around him says they think he’s going to run. And not all of them, but many of them say his heart isn’t quite in it.’
The reporter added: “Now those two things are not mutually exclusive. You can run and not have your heart in it. However, we’ve seen other people who run when their heart isn’t in it, that voters can tell you it’s impacting how you walk.”
The potential for a former president to launch a new campaign amid a slew of legal challenges and a refusal to accept the 2020 election results is “an unprecedented situation,” Haberman said.
“I think Trump lacks the magnificence and legal protection that the presidency afforded him,” Haberman said in a separate interview with the president. New York Times.
In a separate interview, the reporter who has covered Trump for decades since the height of his New York empire, Haberman, said she believed the former president had “pushed himself into a corner where he has to run.”
She predicted that Trump believes a presidential election could legally protect him and added how he raises money.
“I think he needs the protection that presidential candidate (he thinks) would give him in fighting investigations he calls a ‘witch hunt’. And it’s the way he raises money and makes money. So much of his identity now is about being a politician. So I expect him to run. That doesn’t mean that even if he does run, he’ll stay all the time.’