These Barbara Bush Quotes About Trump Are Still So Relevant For American Women

On Tuesday, a formidable former first lady passed away at age 92. Her legacy will carry on for many years to come, as will some of her insightful comments. In fact, some Barbara Bush quotes about Donald Trump probably still resonate with many American women. They also exemplify her history of standing up for women's causes, no matter what party she's affiliated with.

In 2016, Barbara's son, Jeb, was running against Trump in the Republican presidential primary. In February of that year, Barbara and Jeb sat down for a televised interview with CNN. During the interview, Barbara was asked her thoughts about Trump, who had repeatedly been attacking her son in the media. Barbara did not hold back at all when revealing her feelings about Trump, particularly as they related to his treatment of women. As the former first lady put it:

He doesn't give many answers to how he would solve problems. He sort of makes faces and says insulting thing ... He's said terrible things about women, terrible things about the military. I don't understand why people are for him, for that reason. I'm a woman ... I'm not crazy about what he says about women.

Barbara also echoed similar sentiments during an interview on CBS This Morning on February 4, 2016 — a couple days prior to the aforementioned CNN interview. When discussing Trump during an interview with her son, Jeb, Barbara again took Trump to task for his behavior toward women:

He's [Trump's] like a comedian or like a showman or something. It's just, the whole thing, not working with Congress ... that's the way things get done in this country ... Well, what about [how he's treated] women? I mean, unbelievable. I don't know how women can vote for someone who said what he said about Megyn Kelly. It's terrible. And we knew what he meant too. Don't you get in his firing line. And money doesn't buy everything. It's accomplishments and what you're doing and giving. It's incomprehensible to me.

Barbara was likely referring to Trump's previous verbal attacks on and criticism of Kelly. Kelly moderated a Republican presidential debate back in August of 2015.

Barbara has advocated for women throughout her many years of public service. According to Rewire.News, in 1992, she made headlines when she noted in an interview with three news magazines that she believed abortion was "a personal choice . . . [a] personal thing ... The personal things should be left out of, in my opinion, out of platforms and conventions." Her comments stood in stark contrast to the Republican party's — and her husband's — strong anti-choice platform, a platform on which her husband was running for re-election as president.

Barbara also pointedly noted in her memoir, Barbara Bush: A Memoir, that she is pro-choice. In fact, according to Mother Jones, many members of the Bush family, including Barbara's husband, readily supported abortion rights and funding for Planned Parenthood. That is, until the Republican Party moved to the right and became more conservative in the 1980s.

In addition to her support for women's issues, Bush also worked throughout her life to champion family literacy — a cause to which she was extremely dedicated. Indeed, two prominent organizations dedicated to literacy bear her name: The Barbara Bush Houston Literacy Foundation and the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy. During her lifetime, Barbara also published two children's books and donated all of the proceeds toward advancing universal literacy in the United States.

Overall, Barbara was certainly highly committed to standing up and advocating for causes in which she believed. Her quotes about Trump's treatment of women — and her advocacy for women and families — likely still hold strong significance for many American women today.