Yes, but the guy used bush as an example, because the guy was dumb. He isn't trying to say bush was smart.
this post was submitted on 05 Apr 2026
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In addition, he's the only Republican President of the new millennium, beside Trump.
This is not "whitewashing", especially if you were politically conscious during the W years. It is damning with very faint praise. That's the joke.
I don't know if I trust that. I don't know if I trust the intentions of another neoliberal like Gavin Newsom. Never forget that neoliberals were on both sides of the aisle.
And we are not saying that he isn't whitewashing Bush. We're just saying, that this specific tweet isn't an example of that
There's absolutely a strain of liberal discourse that has decided actually Bush wasn't that bad, and chose to ignore that much of what Bush did was lay the legal and structural groundwork for what Trump is now running rampant with.
That is true, but that's not happening in this specific comment.
It's a fucking race of 2
What Newsom's office posted is called a "backhanded compliment" aka an insult disguised as praise.
In this case, Dubya (George HW Bush) was generally perceived to be a dumb guy: Freezing in front of kindergartners when receiving news of 9/11, using malapropisms such as the double negative "misunderestimated", the whole "Mission Accomplished" staged scene on a carrier that turned out to be very premature announcement, in 2003, of the end of the Iraq War, which actually ended with US troop withdrawal in 2011.
Newsom's Office is saying that Trump is dumber than Dubya, which is quite an accomplishment. (see what I did there?)
The tweeter 679 Enthusiast/@marionumber4 may not be literate or English proficient to understand this, and may be a bot, non English-proficient troll, or just posting whatever for a couple of clicks of validation.
The tweeter 679 Enthusiast/@marionumber4 may not be literate or English proficient to understand this, and may be a bot, non English-proficient troll, or just posting whatever for a couple of clicks of validation.
This from a post that gets the Bush wrong...
Smartest in a field of two is just second dumbest.
Rehabilitation?
Bush is a fucking moron.
That's called a compliment-insult. (Newsom's comment)
This poster is dumber than drumpf.
There's only been two Republican presidents in the new millennium so idk if saying Dubya is the smartest is necessrily whitewashing, because it also kind of feels like sneak dissing.
Seems like that just sailed right over most people's heads.
I agree with you.
I remember when we were sure that W would go down in the history books as the dumbest President of the US. The man owes Trump some serious gratitude for taking over that position and leaving a significant possibility that someone even worse will come along later.
It should go without saying that making the comparison is not an automatic endorsement. Unfortunately, it's hard to have a real conversation in good faith on a platform like this one. You'll inevitably fail some random person's very specific purity test.
Y'all insisting this is a joke making fun of Trump are, one, correct. And two, need to remember conservatives use jokes to push the Overton Window and protect themselves from criticism.
For example, Steve Bannon and Jeffrey Epstein and their vile brood promoting racist and sexist "jokes" online (I still can't believe fucking Epstein funded 4chan. Who's writing this season?) in order to turn "edgy" American teens into actual racists - because the more you joke about something, the more normal it seems to talk about it, and that gives people who actually take it seriously room to debate and persuade.
Or take the White House, which routinely posts viciously, explicitly racist memes, and, when criticized, responds with "it's just a joke, you're stupid to be offended". Conservatives are extraordinarily effective at using humor to promote hateful, bigoted ideologies, and because they refuse to defend or debate those messages, and call people stupid for expecting them to, they effectively silence their critics and prevent criticism of their hateful, bigoted ideologies.
Redeeming Bush Jr is certainly a hateful, bigoted act. And Newsom, whatever else he is, is clearly a conservative.
And on the gripping hand, remember the ratchet effect. It's easy for modern Democrats to praise Bush Jr because, in a lot of ways, Bush Jr defined the modern Democratic Party. Obama followed the Bush Doctrine to the letter in terms of foreign policy, and Biden carried on his work. Cheney didn't endorse Harris for nothing. There's no daylight between the Republican Party of 2004 and the Democratic Party of 2024 when it comes to foreign relations or economic policy.
Bruh, are we really this stupid? There have only been 2 R presidents this millenium, he's just calling Trump dumb - even dumber than Bush, who was a certified idiot.
Yeah, I just read it and thought "that's a pretty good joke"
“Remember when we had a CEO for a president? Weren’t those great times?!”
Both Republican presidents we've had since 2000 are former members of the board of directors or CEOs of companies before their political aspirations, and both have done really bad things for the economy leading to mass unemployment, both have started wars in the middle east, both have been accused of war crimes (credibly), and both will most likely live out their lives without ever seeing consequences for the things they've done come back to them.
The title is irrelevant when they've all served capital.
I feel like I’m taking crazy pills
Because his only competition for intelligent Republican president this millennium is... The idiot who thinks Hannibal lecter is real
If you want to have any conversations with actual Americans you really need to understand you’re using liberal wrong.
I say that knowing full well what you think it means and what interest you have in communicating with actual Americans.
s/you/one but you get the gist.
They’re using it very accurately here.
No. They're not.
Okay, educate us. Show your ass.
Maybe seven words isn't enough to interpret these things out of? More information needed.