On January 20th, Donald Trump was inaugurated president in a nightmare I somehow am still unable to wake from. You may remember it! It was poorly attended and he was very upset and spent like a week crying and made his press secretary go out and lie about the attendance and then was mad at that same press secretary not for lying but for wearing ill-fitting suits. These are all things that happened only months ago and yet the trauma, tragedy, and sheer ridiculousness of the last few months make them feel like a lifetime ago.
Another thing that is real and happened once in life is that the US in the olden days—the Before Time—had this president named George W. Bush who was the son of another president named George Bush. (What’s that saying? ‘Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on Humpty-Dumpty. Fool me three time, the baby is going out with the bath water’?) Neither of them were very good presidents. Indeed, the Younger was quite unGood. Started an unnecessary war against the wrong country, in which hundreds of thousands of civilians were killed. Liked clearing brush in Texas. He’s a painter now.
These two surreal characters, each of which would be considered an unrealistic element in an even moderately good screenplay, shared screen-time during the inauguration. Obama and Clinton, and the other presidents former, were there too. Some others as well. Not many but some.
So what did the last Republican president think of the current Republican president’s inauguration?
According to occasional Mother Jones contributor Yashar Ali’s report in New York Mag, not much!
But, according to three people who were present, Bush gave a brief assessment of Trump’s inaugural after leaving the dais: “That was some weird shit.” All three heard him say it.
A spokesman for Bush declined to comment.
He’s not wrong!
Have a super evening but don’t forget to, before you go to sleep tonight, fold your hands and pray that in the morning we all wake up and it’s 1999 and none of this ever happened.
