George W. Bush Gave Us Donald Trump . 
George W Bush
As Jacobin 's Branko Marcetic reminds us , U.S. forces under the Bush administration killed multiple journalists , including shelling a hotel known to be full of international reporters . 
The Bush administration 's failure to prevent the 911 attacks , followed by the non-sequitur invasion and occupation of Iraq , gave rise to ISIS and the world we know today . 
It 's the opening of the National Museum of African-American History and Culture , and George W. Bush is sharing a brief snuggle with Michelle Obama . 
Without Bush 's two most fateful decisions -- letting Wall Street run amok and invading Iraq -- it 's hard to imagine Trump 's metamorphosis from a second-rate reality TV star to president of the United States . 
Left : President Bush disavows anti-Muslim sentiment after 911 , speaking at the Islamic Center of Washington on Sept. 17 , 2001 . 
Hazy nostalgia for George W. Bush carries broader risks . 
But where reputational rehab used to take a generation or two , Bush is trying to loosen the clutches of market-fresh infamy . 
Normalizing Bush weakens our already weak grip on history , making it that much harder to see how today 's political harvest was also cultivated by the administrations of Clinton , who signed the legislation implementing NAFTA and unleashed Wall Street , and Obama , who continued the Wall Street bailouts and allowed 90 percent of wealth creation during his tenure to accrue to the top 1 percent . 
The immediate context for the "normalizing" of George W. Bush is the rise of Donald Trump . 
But Bush 's policies created the conditions that brought Trump to power , and only in the wake of his own trademarked disasters does he look tame by comparison . 
Paul J. RichardsAFPGetty Images President Bush is informed of the attacks on the World Trade Center on Sept. 11 , 2001 , while attending a school reading event in Sarasota , Florida . 
Left : President Bush looks out over Hurricane Katrina 's devastation as he flies back to Washington on Aug. 31 , 2005 . 
Right : Bush sits with New Orleans high school students Ashantae Martin -LRB- left -RRB- and Ronjae Pleasant at an event marking the 10th anniversary of Katrina on Aug. 28 , 2015 . 
Bush 's advocates and former officials knew all along that presidential records are inevitably re-evaluated . 
The reassessments started even before Bush left office , with the rise of the tea party and the weakening of the old Republican Party establishment . 
The "Embrace Seen Around the World" has shown us how much harder remembering will be under the spell of social media , which may be shrinking our historical depth of field faster than Bush 's secret energy task force helped melt the Antarctic ice sheets . 
Among followers of Palin , who morphed into tea partiers and later into Trump die-hards , Bush was considered little better than Barack Obama . -RRB- 
The joke concerned recycling yesterday 's fashions at Urban Outfitters , but it hinted at a world where George W. Bush is recycled on national television and the pages of Time magazine . 
During Obama 's second term , it helped spawn an ironic reconsideration widespread enough for Vanity Fair to declare Bush "a hipster icon ." 
BuzzFeed went further , describing the born-to-wealth Bush as an "outsider artist" and offering "15 Reasons George W. Bush Should Come Work For BuzzFeed Animals ." 
Bush helped birth Trump , but he also revived the soul of national resistance . 
That resistance ca n't stop Bush and his fellow ex-presidents from trying to rewrite history and making tens of millions of dollars on the lecture circuit . 
Left : Aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln on May 1 , 2003 , President Bush declares major fighting over in Iraq . 
Right : Bush 's paintings of wounded veterans hang at his presidential library in Dallas on Feb. 28 , 2017 . 
By the time Trump clinched the GOP nomination last year , Bush 's approval numbers equaled Bill Clinton 's -- a huge turnaround since Bush 's ignominious departure from office . 
Then came the cute-bomb of the "Embrace Seen Around the World ," followed more recently by the release of Bush 's coffee table art book , a sit-down on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" and a People interview about his besties status with Michelle . 
In these and other forums , Bush declared racism bad and criticized Trump 's ban on travelers from seven -LRB- now six -RRB- Muslim-majority countries . 
For those desperate to escape the awful reality of the present , Bush 's comments reinforced the comforting delusion of a big-tent bipartisan #resistance that will return everything to the halcyon days of a completely sane and not-at-all racist Republican Party . 
"Bush worked hard to sow tolerance for Muslim-Americans , convinced -- like President Obama -- that respect and openness was an asset in the fight against jihadists ," Slate 's Jamelle Bouie wrote in November 2015 , as Trump 's candidacy rose on the back of his proposed Muslim ban . 
As president , Trump has shifted Americans ' vantage point on Bush , who seems competent , well-spoken , tolerant and humane by comparison . 
I 'm sitting here wistfully watching old George W. Bush speeches ," Ansari said . 
Left : Ignoring reporters ' questions , President Bush turns to leave after announcing his support for a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage on Feb. 24 , 2004 . 
Right : Bush appears as a guest on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" on March 2 , 2017 . 
Missing amid much of the reaction to Bush 's sensible words was the memory of his deeds . 
If Bush really was n't so bad , then Trump is more of a dramatic switch from ages past than he 's already been judged . 
It 's also what 's helping Bush . 
They point out that Bush did much to create the very conditions that gave rise to Trump -- which , in turn , is driving his own expedited rehab . 
Bush bears a more direct responsibility for the misery in the Middle East . 
If Bush had never been president , or an execution-happy Texas governor , he might be a great buddy to talk baseball with . 
Bush , it should be remembered , had plenty of warning : Millions marched in opposition to the Iraq invasion , a street echo of the Arab League 's ominous admonition that such a move would "open the gates of hell ." 
Brennan LinsleyPoolGetty Images A photo of President Bush hangs alongside other government and military leaders in the headquarters of the U.S. Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay , Cuba , on Jan. 20 , 2009 . 
Trump is an admirer of torture and other Bush deeds that have only driven extremists ' recruitment . 
Given the media 's role in rehabbing him , it seems necessary to note that Bush also hated the press .
As Jacobin 's Branko Marcetic reminds us , U.S. forces under the [TGT] administration killed multiple journalists , including shelling a hotel known to be full of international reporters . 
The Bush administration 's failure to prevent the 911 attacks , followed by the non-sequitur invasion and occupation of Iraq , gave rise to ISIS and the world we know today . 
It 's the opening of the National Museum of African-American History and Culture , and [TGT] is sharing a brief snuggle with Michelle Obama . 
Without [TGT] 's two most fateful decisions -- letting Wall Street run amok and invading Iraq -- it 's hard to imagine Trump 's metamorphosis from a second-rate reality TV star to president of the United States . 
Left : [TGT] disavows anti-Muslim sentiment after 911 , speaking at the Islamic Center of Washington on Sept. 17 , 2001 . 
Hazy nostalgia for [TGT] carries broader risks . 
But where reputational rehab used to take a generation or two , [TGT] is trying to loosen the clutches of market-fresh infamy . 
[TGT] weakens our already weak grip on history , making it that much harder to see how today 's political harvest was also cultivated by the administrations of Clinton , who signed the legislation implementing NAFTA and unleashed Wall Street , and Obama , who continued the Wall Street bailouts and allowed 90 percent of wealth creation during [TGT] tenure to accrue to the top 1 percent . 
The immediate context for the "normalizing" of [TGT] is the rise of Donald Trump . 
But [TGT] 's policies created the conditions that brought Trump to power , and only in the wake of his own trademarked disasters does he look tame by comparison . 
Paul J. RichardsAFPGetty Images [TGT] is informed of the attacks on the World Trade Center on Sept. 11 , 2001 , while attending a school reading event in Sarasota , Florida . 
Left : [TGT] looks out over Hurricane Katrina 's devastation as [TGT] flies back to Washington on Aug. 31 , 2005 . 
Right : [TGT] sits with New Orleans high school students Ashantae Martin -LRB- left -RRB- and Ronjae Pleasant at an event marking the 10th anniversary of Katrina on Aug. 28 , 2015 . 
[TGT] 's advocates and former officials knew all along that presidential records are inevitably re-evaluated . 
The reassessments started even before [TGT] left office , with the rise of the tea party and the weakening of the old Republican Party establishment . 
The "Embrace Seen Around the World" has shown us how much harder remembering will be under the spell of social media , which may be shrinking our historical depth of field faster than [TGT] 's secret energy task force helped melt the Antarctic ice sheets . 
Among followers of Palin , who morphed into tea partiers and later into Trump die-hards , [TGT] was considered little better than Barack Obama . -RRB- 
The joke concerned recycling yesterday 's fashions at Urban Outfitters , but it hinted at a world where [TGT] is recycled on national television and the pages of Time magazine . 
During Obama 's second term , it helped spawn an ironic reconsideration widespread enough for Vanity Fair to declare [TGT] "a hipster icon ." 
BuzzFeed went further , describing the born-to-wealth Bush as an "outsider artist" and offering "15 Reasons George W. Bush Should Come Work For BuzzFeed Animals ." 
[TGT] helped birth Trump , but [TGT] also revived the soul of national resistance . 
That resistance ca n't stop [TGT] and [TGT] fellow ex-presidents from trying to rewrite history and making tens of millions of dollars on the lecture circuit . 
Left : Aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln on May 1 , 2003 , [TGT] declares major fighting over in Iraq . 
Right : [TGT] 's paintings of wounded veterans hang at [TGT] presidential library in Dallas on Feb. 28 , 2017 . 
By the time Trump clinched the GOP nomination last year , [TGT] 's approval numbers equaled Bill Clinton 's -- a huge turnaround since [TGT] 's ignominious departure from office . 
Then came the cute-bomb of the "Embrace Seen Around the World ," followed more recently by the release of [TGT] 's coffee table art book , a sit-down on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" and a People interview about [TGT] besties status with Michelle . 
In these and other forums , [TGT] declared racism bad and criticized Trump 's ban on travelers from seven -LRB- now six -RRB- Muslim-majority countries . 
For those desperate to escape the awful reality of the present , [TGT] 's comments reinforced the comforting delusion of a big-tent bipartisan #resistance that will return everything to the halcyon days of a completely sane and not-at-all racist Republican Party . 
"[TGT] worked hard to sow tolerance for Muslim-Americans , convinced -- like President Obama -- that respect and openness was an asset in the fight against jihadists ," Slate 's Jamelle Bouie wrote in November 2015 , as Trump 's candidacy rose on the back of [TGT] proposed Muslim ban . 
As president , Trump has shifted Americans ' vantage point on Bush , who seems competent , well-spoken , tolerant and humane by comparison . 
I 'm sitting here wistfully watching old George W. Bush speeches ," Ansari said . 
Left : Ignoring reporters ' questions , [TGT] turns to leave after announcing [TGT] support for a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage on Feb. 24 , 2004 . 
Right : [TGT] appears as a guest on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" on March 2 , 2017 . 
Missing amid much of the reaction to [TGT] 's sensible words was the memory of [TGT] deeds . 
If [TGT] really was n't so bad , then Trump is more of a dramatic switch from ages past than [TGT] 's already been judged . 
It 's also what 's helping [TGT] . 
They point out that [TGT] did much to create the very conditions that gave rise to Trump -- which , in turn , is driving [TGT] own expedited rehab . 
[TGT] bears a more direct responsibility for the misery in the Middle East . 
If [TGT] had never been president , or an execution-happy Texas governor , [TGT] might be a great buddy to talk baseball with . 
[TGT] , it should be remembered , had plenty of warning : Millions marched in opposition to the Iraq invasion , a street echo of the Arab League 's ominous admonition that such a move would "open the gates of hell ." 
Brennan LinsleyPoolGetty Images A photo of [TGT] hangs alongside other government and military leaders in the headquarters of the U.S. Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay , Cuba , on Jan. 20 , 2009 . 
Trump is an admirer of torture and other [TGT] deeds that have only driven extremists ' recruitment . 
Given the media 's role in rehabbing him , it seems necessary to note that [TGT] also hated the press .