Bush takes a swipe at the ‘bigotry’ of Trump’s America

GEORGE W Bush yesterday spoke out about the ‘bigotry and bullying’ that was destroying America in a thinly veiled attack on Donald Trump.

The former president painted a grim picture of the US under its present leader and said that ‘we’ve seen our discourse degraded by casual cruelty’.

He also said ‘our politics seem more vulnerable to conspiracy theories and outright fabrication’, a clear jab at Mr Trump.

Mr Bush said that bullying and prejudice in public life ‘provides permission for cruelty’ and sets a terrible example for children.

He called on Americans to reject racism and said: ‘Bigotry or white supremacy in any form is blasphemy against the American creed.’

Mr Bush has in the past largely respected the convention that former presidents do not criticise an incumbent.

While he did not at any point name Mr Trump, his comments were widely seen as a critique of his presidency. Mr Trump ran on an anti-immigrant platform and since becoming president has used Twitter to insult his opponents on a daily basis.

Black commentators have accused him of being a white supremacist because of his failure to immediately disavow the Ku Klux Klan and his antiMuslim travel ban.

Mr Bush said: ‘We’ve forgotten the dynamism immigration has brought to America.’

Speaking at the George W Bush Institute’s Spirit of Liberty event in New York, he added: ‘The very identity of our nation depends on the passing of civic ideals to the next generation.’

Mr Bush also criticised Mr Trump’s isolationist foreign policy, America First.

He said: ‘People are hurting. They’re angry and they’re frustrated. We must help them.

‘But we cannot wish globalisation away, any more than we could wish away the agricultural revolution or the Industrial Revolution.’

‘Permission for cruelty’