Story highlights
- Jeb Bush's oldest son is backing Donald Trump for president
- That despite a tough primary fight between the former Florida governor and the billionaire businessman
(CNN)Jeb Bush is resolutely #NeverTrump but his son, George P. Bush, no longer is.
George
P. Bush, the Texas land commissioner, is breaking with his father, a
former Donald Trump Republican primary rival, to back the GOP nominee.
George P. Bush's move comes after a nasty Republican primary battle in
which Trump repeatedly mocked Jeb Bush, a former Florida governor, as
"low energy," among other insults.
The Texas Tribune reported
that at a Saturday gathering of Texas Republican activists Bush said it
was time to unite behind Trump in his fall campaign against Democratic
nominee Hillary Clinton.
"From Team
Bush, it's a bitter pill to swallow, but you know what? You get back up
and you help the man that won, and you make sure that we stop Hillary
Clinton," Bush said, according to video made by an audience member.
On Monday a Bush family confidante, CNN
political commentator Ana Navarro, suggested George P. Bush's
endorsement of Trump was unenthusiastic but necessary.
"I
think it's probably not easy for George P. Bush," Navarro told CNN's
Wolf Blitzer on "The Situation Room." "I suspect that he feels about as
much enthusiasm for supporting Donald Trump as I do about hand-massaged
kale."
But "that being said, he has got some requirements," he's got to fulfill for the Texas Republican Party. "The guy probably wasn't his 10th choice. But he is the nominee we have, and George P. is doing what he needs to do, and I'm sure his father has absolutely no trouble with it."
But "that being said, he has got some requirements," he's got to fulfill for the Texas Republican Party. "The guy probably wasn't his 10th choice. But he is the nominee we have, and George P. is doing what he needs to do, and I'm sure his father has absolutely no trouble with it."
George P. Bush, first elected
in 2014, has until now been a Trump holdout. He's been far from the only
Bush family member to refrain from backing Trump. Former Presidents
George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush -- George P. Bush's grandfather and
uncle, respectively -- both skipped the Republican convention in
Cleveland last month.
Jeb Bush has been vehement in his opposition to Trump, saying he won't vote for the nominee in November. In July, Jeb Bush predicted
that Donald Trump's supporters will feel "betrayed" when his campaign
promises fail to become reality. "There isn't going to be a wall built,"
Bush said in an MSNBC interview. "And Mexico's not going to pay for it.
And there's not going to be a ban on Muslims."
Trump hasn't forgiven or forgotten his primary tussles with Jeb Bush. In June, the then-presumptive Republican nominee accused
-- without substantiation -- his former rival of leading an effort
among GOP delegates to block him from securing the nomination in
Cleveland.
"By the way, Jeb is
working on the movement, just so you understand. I love competition like
that. I love it," Trump said during a campaign rally in Las Vegas.
A
longtime Jeb Bush adviser, Sally Bradshaw, last week said she had
become an independent, adding if the presidential race in Florida is
close, she'll vote for Hillary Clinton.
George
P. Bush, 40, is the fourth straight generation of his family in elected
office. The lawyer and father of two struck out on familiar family
political turf in Texas, rather than Florida where he was raised.
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