George P. Bush says he’ll vote for Trump in 2020 election

Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush, the son of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and the nephew of former President George W. Bush, on Tuesday made clear that he will vote for President Trump in the 2020 election.

“Trump is the only thing standing between America and socialism,” George P. Bush said in a statement to The Dallas Morning News and The Texas Tribune.

“Even in a global pandemic where we have had to take unprecedented measures to protect public health, the economy is already returning,” he added. “It’s clear, America and Texas will continue to be stronger than ever.”

The comments from the younger Bush arrived just days after a New York Times report revealed that some prominent Republicans were struggling with whether to endorse Trump in the upcoming election. People familiar with George W. Bush’s thinking told the newspaper that he would not back the president’s reelection. Jeb Bush is unsure how he will vote come November, the Times reported. 

Freddy Ford, the former president’s spokesman, on Monday pushed back against the report in the Times, calling it “completely made up.”

“President Bush is retired from presidential politics and has not indicated how he will vote,” Ford said.

Tensions between Trump and the Bush family have existed since the 2016 presidential campaign, when Jeb Bush vied for the Republican presidential nomination alongside Trump. Trump regularly disparaged him during the campaign, often referring to him as “low energy Jeb.”

More recently, Trump targeted George W. Bush after the former president called on Americans to push partisanship aside amid the outbreak of the novel coronavirus. Trump responded by calling out George W. Bush’s failure to support him during the impeachment trial he faced earlier this year. 

“He was nowhere to be found in speaking up against the greatest Hoax in American history,” Trump tweeted in early May. 

George P. Bush endorsed Trump in the 2016 election and voiced his support again for the president in 2018 as he campaigned for reelection. In April 2019, Trump called the Texas land commissioner “the only Bush that likes me” while speaking at an executive order signing in Crosby, Texas.