A new report claims former President George W. Bush and his family are laying the groundwork to reassert influence over the Republican Party once President Donald Trump leaves office. According to the Daily Mail, “rumors” are circulating about a “plot to end the so-called ‘Bush Exile’” and rebuild a GOP more closely aligned with pre-Trump conservatism.
The report describes a “shadow Republican Party… lying in wait to take over when Trump is gone,” leveraging the Bush family’s longstanding national political network. While Bush has refrained from publicly criticizing Trump—a decision that has frustrated some former aides—the outlet suggests he may be open to quietly influencing the party’s future direction.
A former Bush official told the Daily Mail that Trump “knows that there’s no third term option,” acknowledging that Vice President JD Vance “has a head start” among likely 2028 Republican presidential hopefuls. The official predicted a “big open field” for the GOP nomination once Trump exits the scene.
Former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele has reportedly urged Bush to become more active in shaping the party, arguing that the former president has “a voice that would resonate with a lot more Americans,” according to the outlet.
The Bush family’s potential reemergence comes after years of tension between the establishment-aligned Bush wing of the GOP and Trump’s populist “Make America Great Again” movement.
In a 2021 interview with CBS News host Norah O’Donnell, Bush said he believed Trump lacked the “humility” needed for effective leadership. Earlier, in 2019, Bush criticized what he described as Trump’s “isolationist United States,” calling it “destabilizing around the world” and warning that such a direction was “dangerous for the sake of peace.”
Those comments came years after Bush led the country into the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, which resulted in more than 4,500 American deaths in Iraq alone, including over 3,500 killed in combat.
While Bush has maintained a largely quiet public profile since 2016, the Daily Mail report suggests the family’s political network is far from dormant — and could reassert itself once Trump’s tenure comes to an end.
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JEB!
Go away George. As a Texan I have had quite enough of your brand of conservatism. As an owner of the baseball team you did a good job. You should have left it at that.
“The new world order” these are words from the mouth of Bush. The Bush family is part of the globalist elites who are trying to take or the world. They are part of the World Economic Forum as well. The goal of these organizations is elite world domination. These people are despicable and should not be allowed in politics again.