‘I love you’: George H.W. Bush’s final words on deathbed were to ex-president son
- Bush, who died late Friday at his Houston home, is to be honoured with a state funeral in Washington on Wednesday
- US President Donald Trump is to attend with first lady Melania Trump and other high-ranking officials
Tributes poured in from world leaders in memory of the 41st US president, who guided America through the end of the cold war and launched the international campaign to drive Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein’s forces from Kuwait.
Many of those same leaders are expected to attend Bush’s state funeral this week, alongside President Donald Trump and his wife Melania. Trump was notably absent from the funerals of the statesman’s late wife Barbara, and of veteran fellow Republican John McCain.
Although the two Republican presidents were in many ways polar opposites – the soft-spoken, patrician Bush reportedly once dismissed the blustering New Yorker as a “blowhard” and even voted for his rival Hillary Clinton – Trump paid the late leader a gracious tribute, saying he had “inspired generations of his fellow Americans to public service.”
“His accomplishments were great from beginning to end,” Trump tweeted.
