President Bush Defends the 'Indispensable' Media in Rare Interview: 'Power Can Be Very Addictive' … Former president George W. Bush took a few thinly veiled shots at President Donald Trump during an interview with NBC's "Today" show. The Republican ex-president appeared on Monday's program to promote his upcoming book, "Portraits of Courage: A Commander in Chief's Tribute to America's Warriors," and anchor Matt Lauer asked if he agreed with Trump that the media was an "enemy of the people." – Mediaite

Former President George W. Bush is making the media rounds selling a book he has just written about top veterans who have impressed him and supposedly had a personal impact on him.

He was on NBC's Today show talking about the book. Under Lauer's questioning, he talked about Trump as well.

Bush was obviously torn. He wanted to say some not so nice things about Trump – who had eviscerated his brother – but presidential decorum spoke against it. He did make some comments however.

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"I consider the media to be indispensable to democracy," Bush said. "We need an independent media to hold people like me to account. Power can be very addictive and it can be corrosive, and it's important for the media to call to account people who abuse their power."

Bush said he tried to convince Russian president Vladimir Putin of the importance of an independent press, and he said American credibility was crucial in fostering democracy elsewhere.

"It's kind of hard to tell others to have an independent free press when we're not willing to have one ourselves," Bush said.

He also said Trump needed more time before he might make specific criticisms about the new president. At the same time, he said he believed in an immigration policy that was "lawful" but "welcoming."

Toward  the end of his presidency, Bush actually went a great deal beyond friendliness. He tried to pass legislation that would normalize the status of million of Mexicans in this country, and basically put them on a fast track to citizenship.

This is because Bush, like the Clintons and others, is basically a globalist. A lot of what he tried to do as President involved tearing down America and building up internationalist entities. He tried to split America in two with the a special North American Union highway running from Texas to Canada.

There never was any real reason given for wars he embarked upon. Years later America is still in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Pentagon wants billions more for Afghanistan – much of it without strings attached.

Bush killed thousands and injured hundreds of thousands fighting wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Then he withdrew to his ranch to paint. Now he has come out with a book about veterans.

Chances are he did not write the book himself. He was not especially interested in veterans as president. Nor did he do much to fix the lamentable VA system.