WASHINGTON (AP) – President George W. Bush turned to one of the world’s most exclusive clubs for help raising money after an Indian Ocean tsunami killed more than 200,000 people in 2004.
He paired his father, George H.W. Bush, and the man who defeated him to win the presidency in 1992, Bill Clinton. It worked so well that he signed the duo up again after Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans less than a year later.
President Barack Obama followed the same playbook and sent Clinton and the younger Bush off on a fundraising effort for Haiti after a devastating earthquake in 2010.
Not President Donald Trump, who has no plans to seek his predecessors’ counsel during the coronavirus pandemic, a complex crisis with profound public health and economic consequences.
“No, not really. We’re doing a great job,” Trump said recently when asked if he would contact any of the living former presidents.