George W. Bush not expected to speak at GOP convention

What's happening: A person familiar with the convention planning but not authorized to speak publicly about potential speakers does not expect Bush to speak at the event.

• Bush's office did not respond to an Axios question about whether he had been invited.
• Republican National Committee spokesman Zach Kraft said that President Trump and Vice President JD Vance are the only confirmed speakers at this point — and declined to answer a question about whether Bush had been invited.
• The GOP plans to announce more speakers in the coming days but Bush has already said he has other plans.

Between the lines: The event, the party's first-ever midterm convention, is billed as a celebration of Trump's America First agenda. It's scheduled for Sept. 9-10 at the American Airlines Center — and KERA reports that Bush has previously scheduled plans to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.

Zoom in: Bush and his family made their home in Dallas in the early 1990s and he and his wife, Laura, returned after leaving the White House.

• His presidential library is in Dallas, on the SMU campus, and a stretch of highway in town is named for him.

Flashback: As far back as 2017, Bush was repudiating Trump.

• "Bigotry seems emboldened," he said in a speech at his presidential center in Dallas. "Our politics seems more vulnerable to conspiracy theories and outright fabrication." (Bush notably didn't call out Trump by name in that address; he has generally said little publicly about the president.)
• Trump, for his part, once said it would have been "wonderful" if then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) had moved to impeach Bush over the Iraq war.

Reality check: Bush, who said he wrote in his former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice for president in 2020 and didn't endorse a candidate in 2024, might not have gotten a warm welcome among the MAGA faithful at the convention.

Editor's note: This story and headline have been corrected to remove a link to an unofficial website for the convention and mentions of a speakers' list.