Former first lady Barbara Bush said Donald Trump was responsible for her “heart attack,” according to a new book.
Although she technically did not suffer an actual heart attack, Bush referred to her June 2016 crisis with congestive heart failure and chronic pulmonary disease in those terms. She was rushed to the hospital by ambulance as her husband, former President George H.W. Bush, and son, former President George W. Bush, trailed in a car driven by a Secret Service agent.
The new book, “The Matriarch: Barbara Bush and the Making of an American Dynasty” by Susan Page of USA Today, gives an account of the incident. Details from the book were published in USA Today on Wednesday.
The tumultuous campaign in 2016 and Trump’s mocking of her son, Jeb, had riled her “angst” Bush later claimed.
“Jeb said, ‘Mom, don’t worry about things you can’t do anything about,’” Barbara Bush recalled. “He’s right. Just do good, make life better for someone else.”
As the year anniversary of Trump’s election neared, she was asked by the author about how she thought things were going under his leadership.
"I'm trying not to think about it," she said "We're a strong country, and I think it will all work out.”
In an interview in October 2017, she told Page that she still considered herself a Republican. But four months later she said: “I’d probably say no today.”
Bush died April 17, 2018 after declining additional treatment for a life-threatening illness.
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.