Jenna Bush Hager Reacts to Dad George W. Bush's Viral Facial Expressions at Trump Inauguration
Considering their opposing political views, some might consider former presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama unlikely candidates to form a friendship.
And yet, the onetime commanders in chief have proven their camaraderie isn’t restricted to party lines.
Take, for instance, their interactions at the inauguration of president Donald Trump Jan. 20. Ahead of the swearing-in ceremony, The Washington Post reporter Emily Davies captured a candid moment inside the Capitol Rotunda in which a staff member asked Bush if he was going to behave and Obama quickly replied, “Nope.”
Following numerical order, the 43rd and 44th presidents then sat in the same row during the event—with Bush being joined by wife Laura Bush and Obama flying solo without wife Michelle Obama.
And while Bush did make some viral facial expressions (though the internet has yet to vote on whether his reactions surpassed his poncho predicament at Trump’s 2017 inauguration), Obama confirmed to Davies his seatmate still behaved “just barely.”
However, Jenna Bush Hager isn’t holding her father solely responsible for the meme-able moment.
“You can’t just blame him because it looks like my dad was also seated next to a bad influence,” she joked on the Jan. 21 episode of Today, adding Bush and Obama have "become unusual friends.”
In fact, viewers caught another glimpse at their bond when Bush greeted Obama with a belly tap at the funeral for former president Jimmy Carter less than two weeks prior.
George W. Bush’s Belly Tap of Barack Obama Goes Viral
But there was a time when it seemed like the two couldn't stomach one another. During his first run for the Oval Office as the Democratic nominee, Obama criticized his Republican predecessor’s policies. But when the former Illinois state senator won the presidential election in 2008, he and Bush decided to reach not for a belly tap but across the aisle for a peaceful transfer of power.
Bush told his successor he can “count on complete cooperation” from his administration. And when Obama began his first term in 2009, the former governor of Texas reiterated his support.
“Very few have had the honor of knowing the responsibility you now feel. Very few know the excitement of the moment and challenges you will face,” he wrote in part of his transition letter. “There will be trying moments. The critics will rage. Your ‘friends’ will disappoint you. But, you will have an Almighty God to comfort you, a family who loves you, and a country that is pulling for you, including me.”
And Obama appreciated Bush’s encouragement.
“George W. Bush despite, obviously, very different political philosophies is a really good man and has been very gracious to me, and Laura has been gracious to Michelle,” he said during a 2016 interview with Face the Nation near the end of his second term. “The whole family has been terrific.”
John Anderson/UPI / Shutterstock
However, it was Bush and Mrs. Obama who really became pals.
“She kind of likes my sense of humor, I guess,” he told People/Entertainment Weekly Network in 2017. “I mean, anybody that likes my sense of humor I immediately like. I needle her a little bit. When I’m around, I’m fairly lighthearted. I mean, they’re around serious people all the time. And we just took to each other.”
And they credit their seating arrangements for bringing them together.
“President Bush and I, we are forever seatmates because of protocol,” the former first lady explained to Today in 2018. “That’s how we sit at all the official functions. So he is my partner in crime at every major thing where all the formers gather. So we’re together all the time, and I love him to death. He’s a wonderful man. He’s a funny man.”
ZACH GIBSON/AFP via Getty Images
Over the past few years, Americans have watched the two share many heartfelt moments. Like when they hugged at the 2016 opening of the National Museum of African American History and Culture—with The New York Times calling the squeeze “the embrace seen around the world”—or when they made headlines after he gave her a cough drop at the 2018 funeral for Senator John McCain.
“It really points out how bitter we’ve become,” Bush noted to Today in 2021 about all the attention around the simple gesture. "I’ll never forget after McCain’s funeral when I gave her the candy I think it was Jenna said, 'Hey, dad! You’re trending.' And I said, 'Not sure what that means.' It was Michelle Obama and I being friendly to each other."
Kevin Dietsch/UPI / Shutterstock
However, Michelle believes there’s a reason their friendship resonates so much with people.
“I think Americans want us to look past party and race and understand that there’s so much more that brings us together,” she said in a 2018 interview with The Dallas Morning News. “It makes you feel good to believe that we live in that country. And I just want to emphasize that we do, but the only way you see it is if you’re willing to step outside of your comfort zone.”
Because as the Becoming author put it, "If you only stay in your world with the people who agree with you all the time, the people who look like you and don’t make you feel unusual, all you have is assuming that, 'We’re the ones that are right. It’s us against them.' But when you start pushing yourself to meet other people, to go in communities and you open yourself up to the beauty of our differences, that’s the only way you discover it."
While her husband may not have the same bond with Laura, there's a simple explanation for that. As Bush once told Jimmy Kimmel, "Well, he doesn’t sit next to her in the funerals."
But the former first ladies have developed a bond over the years, too. During a joint panel at the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit in 2014, The Light We Carry writer called her predecessor “not just a role model but also a friend." And Laura has spoken about the sisterhood first ladies can share.
"There’s a certain sort of sorority or club, I think, among people who are also first ladies," she told the BBC in 2013. "We have a lot of things that we can talk about that no one else would really understand."
Ultimately, Michelle has expressed her belief that Americans are craving more of these bipartisan moments.
“They’re hungry for what we all know—that party doesn’t separate us, color, gender, those kinds of things don’t separate us,” she continued in her 2018 Today interview. “It’s the messages that we send. If we’re the adults and the leaders in the room and we’re not showing that level of decency, we cannot expect our children to do the same. So that’s what I think about when I think about the gestures and the symbols and what our words mean and the impact that it has: I think about the next generation—every single time.”
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