For eight years since leaving the White House, George W. Bush has refused to criticize publicly those who succeeded him, saying he didn’t want to make an already tough job any harder for President Obama and, now, President Trump.
But one rocky month into Trump’s tenure, it’s harder to keep quiet.
“I don’t like the racism and I don’t like the name-calling and I don’t like the people feeling alienated,” Bush, 70, tells PEOPLE in an interview for the new issue of the magazine on newsstands Friday.
“Nobody likes that.”
The former president, joined by his wife Laura, spoke with PEOPLE in the third-floor painting studio of their Dallas home to launch his first art book, Portraits of Courage: A Commander in Chief’s Tribute to America’s Warriors. The collection of portraits of the wounded warriors of America’s war on terror aims to raise awareness and funds for the post-9/11 veterans’ health care and employment programs of the George W. Bush Presidential Center.
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