Trump distances himself from George W. Bush

During this primary season we’ve heard a lot from the Republican candidates about Ronald Reagan but not so much about George W. Bush – unless the candidate happens to be Donald Trump.

Most of the GOP hopefuls, including brother Jeb, have tread lightly when dealing with W. They realize he could be a significant liability in the general election as Democrats remind us of his record during his eight years in the White House.

So, for example, when they are asked about whether Bush’s policies contributed to the 2008 recession, Republicans have a well rehearsed response: “It all started in Bill Clinton’s administration and was the result of the federal government making it too easy for too many irresponsible people to buy houses they couldn’t afford. Bush had nothing to do with it.”

Questions about the Iraq War, however, require a more elaborate dodge. But when the questions come, the Republicans again have been ready with a carefully constructed answer.

GOP officials at all levels got a copy of the script, and they rarely improvised. The storyline went something like this:

“Yes, mistakes were made at the beginning of the war. We didn’t send in enough troops. Dismantling the Iraqi military might not have been such a good idea. And there was waterboarding, Mission Accomplished, Abu Ghraib and all those pictures.

“But (and here’s the essential caveat) near the end of the war, we managed to turn things around. The president chose Gen. David Petraeus to lead the surge and the Sunni Awakening to tamp down the Shia uprising and restore order.

“And why has Iraq relapsed into such a state of disorder now? Because President Barack Obama withdrew our troops too soon, that’s why. And there you have it. Let’s move on to a different topic.”

Unfortunately for the Republicans, however, Trump has torn up the script. He did so for several reasons.

For one, he didn’t support the invasion of Iraq in the first place. For another, he wants to shackle Jeb Bush with his big brother’s record. And, finally, he is not beholden to the party regulars who concocted the myth that we had won the war before Obama lost it.

Earlier this week in an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, Trump baldly stated that we shouldn’t have invaded Iraq: “We shouldn’t have gone in. I said, ‘Don’t go in or we will totally destabilize the whole Middle East.’ And, by the way, Saddam didn’t bomb the World Trade Center.”

He said the U.S. invaded Iraq because of “stupid decisions.” We “left a shell.”

“We spent $2 trillion, thousands of lives, there are wounded warriors all over the place, and now Iran is taking it over,” Trump told Blitzer.

And he dismissed Bush in typical offhand language: “Bush did a bad job. I’ve never been a fan.”

There was much more, none of it flattering for Bush.

Trump is no foreign policy genius, but he’s savvy about connecting with voters. He apparently has concluded that there is no future in being connected in any way with the Bush record or having to defend it.

What’s significant about this is that it effectively exposes the fantasy many Republicans were peddling that the Iraq War turned out OK until Obama messed things up. Trump, the current front-runner for the nomination, is echoing the Democrats and other critics of Bush’s disastrous Iraq policy, and his supporters don’t care.

Bush has said that he never worries about his legacy because he’ll be dead by the time history renders its verdict. With Trump’s help, he might not have to wait that long.

This story was originally published January 28, 2016 at 3:50 PM with the headline "Trump distances himself from George W. Bush."