State funerals can be awkward affairs, especially for national leaders. Protocol demands that former leaders attend, and they tend to get packed together as though the federal auntie went “why, Julia – Tony also used to be a prime minister! You’ll have so much to talk about! And have you met Kevin?”
Remember Gough Whitlam’s funeral in 2014? The fixed grins on the seven living PMs told a rich and vibrant story about how much our leaders loathe one another, and how that loathing was impressively well-earned.
Note the cunning way that each PM is standing at least two PMs from the PM they hate most.
Still, they all played nice. And Donald Trump had a chance to show the same level of being a big presidential boy for the funeral of George HW Bush, and by his standards he was impressively restrained. In that he didn’t yell LOCK HER UP the second he clapped eyes on Hillary Clinton.
He did, however, completely ignore her and her husband… Brett? Bob? Blit? Something like that.
Trumps and Clintons Don't Shake Hands at George H.W. Bush's Funeral
There are awkward greetings and then there's Donald Trump greeting the Obamas and Clintons
Posted by NowThis on Wednesday, 5 December 2018
It wasn’t an easy run though. After all, this was a whole afternoon paying attention to someone else, and he couldn’t even tweet!
“Finally. George, is it? Alright, I want a steak, well done, with chips and ice cream. That’s two scoops, because I’m the president. Anything in my teeth? If there is, I meant it to be there.”
And while he said hello to Barack and Michelle Obama, he pointedly ignored Bill and Hillary Clinton – a point not missed on fellow president Jimmy Carter, going by that epic side-eye.
“How amazing is it that we have THIS WHOLE ROW TO OURSELVES, Mitchell? Like, there’s just us bunched up here at the end and then a BIG OPEN SPACE WITH NO-ONE THERE.”
He did, however, allow someone else also confusingly named George Bush to barge in for a bit.
“Hey, Brad, this is MY waiter. He’s not paid to chit-chat. No-waity-more-steaky.”
And while the rest of the pew seemed to enjoy the reminiscences of the friends and family of the late president Bush, which appropriately focussed very much on his humanity and decency rather than whether he was a war criminal, Trump was clearly waiting to be impressed.
“Who even is this guy? This stand up is terrible. Also, where’s my steak.”
And that was Donnie’s Fun Day Outside.