🤠George W. Bush

43rd President · 2001–2009 · Republican

George W. Bush was the son of the 41st president and only the second son of a president to reach the White House himself (after John Quincy Adams). His presidency was shaped — really, defined — by the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks that came eight months into his first term. He launched the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, cut taxes, expanded Medicare, and left office in the middle of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.

2000 Election

Bush's first presidential race ended in a disputed vote count in Florida. Rival Al Gore won the popular vote by about 540,000 but needed Florida's 25 electoral votes to win the presidency. A 36-day recount battle ended when the U.S. Supreme Court halted recounts in Bush v. Gore (December 12, 2000), effectively awarding Florida — and the presidency — to Bush by 537 votes.

September 11

On the morning of September 11, 2001, al-Qaeda hijackers crashed two passenger jets into the World Trade Center towers in New York, one into the Pentagon, and a fourth into a Pennsylvania field after passengers resisted. Nearly 3,000 people died. Bush was reading to schoolchildren in Florida when informed. His September 20, 2001 speech to Congress — declaring a War on Terror against "every terrorist group of global reach" — laid out the framework that would define the rest of his presidency.

Afghanistan and Iraq

In October 2001, U.S. and allied forces invaded Afghanistan, toppled the Taliban government, and began the hunt for al-Qaeda. Osama bin Laden escaped to Pakistan and was not killed until 2011. In March 2003, based on intelligence claims about weapons of mass destruction that turned out to be wrong, the United States invaded Iraq, toppled Saddam Hussein, and began an eight-year occupation. Both wars lasted far longer than predicted and proved deeply unpopular.

Domestic Agenda

Bush signed major tax cuts in 2001 and 2003, the No Child Left Behind education law, a Medicare prescription drug benefit, and the USA PATRIOT Act. Hurricane Katrina in 2005 exposed severe shortcomings in federal disaster response and damaged his second-term credibility. The 2008 financial crisis — the worst since 1929 — erupted in his final months, prompting the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) bailout.

Retirement and Painting

Bush left office with approval ratings near 30%. In retirement, he has mostly stayed out of politics, painted portraits of wounded veterans and world leaders, built his presidential library at Southern Methodist University, and worked with the Bush Institute on issues including global health and veterans' support.

G.W. Bush Trivia

• He was the first son of a president to become president since John Quincy Adams in 1825.
• Bush was the first president with an MBA (Harvard Business School, 1975).
• He served as managing partner of the Texas Rangers baseball team from 1989 to 1998.
• His 2004 election win over John Kerry gave him more than 62 million votes — the most of any presidential candidate in history at that time.

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