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USA TODAY's Rich Wolf discusses the service for George H.W. Bush at the Washington National Cathedral, featuring a gathering of all living presidents. USA TODAY

President Donald Trump shakes hands as former President Barack Obama, former first lady Michelle Obama, former President Bill Clinton, former first lady Hillary Clinton, and former President Jimmy Carter sit before the funeral service for former US President George H. W. Bush at the National Cathedral in Washington on Dec. 5, 2018.(Photo: BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI, AFP/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON President Donald Trump stared straight ahead. Former President Bill Clinton scanned the program. Former President Jimmy Carter checked his watch.

The atmosphere at therare meeting of the president with his predecessors atthe funeral of George H.W. Bush on Wednesdaywas chilly.Trump shook hands with former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama, did not engage with Bill or Hillary Clintonand promptly took his seat at the end of the row.

As Trump arrived, Hillary Clinton his 2016 opponentand the subject of the president's taunts did not glance his way.

The funeral at the Washington National Cathedral brought togetherthe current and all former living presidents. All but former President George W. Bushsat with their spousestogetherin a front row. Before Trump's arrival, theychatted amicably.

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Bush, who sat with family members at his father's funeral,broke the solemnity, offering gregarious handshakes to Trump and all of the former presidents and their spouses. He handed what appeared to be a piece of candy to Michelle Obama, in what has become a tradition between the two.

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The Obamas laughed in response.

Bush gave the former first lady a mint this year at the funeral of Sen. John McCain, a moment Obama described warmly.

"He is my partner in crime at every major thing where all the formers gather, Obama told NBC. So were together all the time, and I love him to death. Hes a wonderful man."

Former presidents have come together only occasionally over the past several decades, typically for a funeralor to celebrate the opening of a president's library at the end of his term. Historians saidthe imagery of the presidents club has significance for the nation, symbolizing a unity in times of division.

Douglas Brinkley, a historian at Rice University, said the tradition dates back to Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, who rekindled a friendship through letters they made public after the bitterly contested1800 election drove them apart.

"George H.W. Bush epitomizes the presidentscluband the idea that you try, once you leave office, to be nice to the people who come after you,"Brinkley said.

Trump has had anacrimonious relationship with the Bush family, criticizingGeorge H.W. Bush and his sons. The Bush family invited Trump to attend the funeral, but he did not speak. George W. Bush eulogized his father.

The funeral was the first time that Hillary Clinton and Trump were together since his inauguration last year after their antagonistic presidential campaign.Trump continuesto call for an investigation into Clinton's use of a private email server when she was secretary of state.

During the campaign, Trump derided his opponent as "Crooked Hillary" and a "nasty woman." Crowdsat his political rallies beforethis year's midterm election chanted "lock her up" at the mention of her name.

Throughout U.S. history, presidents have often been at odds with each other.Dwight Eisenhower and Harry Truman didn't speak for years. Historians saidno previous chief executive has spoken as publicly and as harshly about predecessors as Trump has.

"Not even close," said Mark Updegrove, who has written books on Lyndon Johnson and the Bush family.

Trump "entered the White House on a trail of scorched earth," Updegrove said. "I don'tthink he respects the institutions the way other presidents have."

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When President George W. Bush greeted former presidents and their spouses at the funeral for his father, George H.W. Bush, he offered more than a handshake to former first lady Michelle Obama. He appeared to slip her a piece of candy, causing Obama to break out in a wide smile.

It was an oddly lighthearted moment in the midst of a funeral proceeding, a microcosm of the unusual friendship between the 43rd president and the former first lady. Bush also snuck a cough drop to Obama during former Sen. John McCain's funeral in September.

Obama described the viral "cough drop moment" at McCain's funeral in an interviewwith "Today" in October.

"President Bush and I, we are forever seatmates because of protocol, and that's how we sit at all the official functions," Obama said about her relationship with the former president. "He's my partner in crime at every major thing where all the 'formers' gather. So we're together all the time."

President George W. Bush and wife Laura Bush greets President Donald Trump, first lady Melania Trump, former President Barack Obama, Michelle Obama, former President Bill Clinton, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former President Jimmy Carter, and Rosalynn Carter during a State Funeral for former President George H.W. Bush at the National Cathedral, Wednesday, Dec. 5, 2018, in Washington.

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Obama and Bush's friendship has become a model of bipartisan bonhomie since former President Barack Obama was in office. They famously shared a hug at the National Museum of African American History and Culture dedication ceremony in 2016.

Bush told People Magazine in 2017 that he and Obama shared a kinship thanks to their mutual sense of humor.

"She kind of likes my sense of humor. Anybody who likes my sense of humor, I immediately like," Bush said. "[The Obamas] are around serious people all the time and we just took to each other."

Bush acknowledged in another interview with Ellen DeGeneres in 2017 that his and Obama's friendship often surprises people, as it shows "that people on opposite sides of the political spectrum can actually like each other."

The Obamas were joined in the first pew at the National Cathedral in Washington for George H.W. Bush's funeral by President Trump and first lady Melania Trump, as well as former President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton and former President Jimmy Carter and Rosslyn Carter.

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Nov. 20, 2018 / 4:18 PM GMT

By Allan Smith

Former President Barack Obama said "racism" and "mommy issues," among other contributors, were limiting the country's ability to make progress on everything from education to climate change.

Obama, speaking at the Obama Foundation Summit on Monday night, said the answers already exist to solve many of the problems facing both the U.S. and the world, but that the nation was not making progress "because we are still confused, blind, shrouded with hate, anger, racism, mommy issues."

The crowd laughed following Obama's remark, which came as he was explaining why he thought less was being done to combat climate change.

We are fraught with stuff, and so if that is the case, then the single most important thing we have to invest in is ... people, Obama continued. We have got to get people to figure out how they work together in a cooperative, thoughtful, constructive way.

The former president said people "literally can remake the world right now," which "badly needs remaking."

Obama did not reference President Donald Trump by name in his remarks. In the lead-up to the midterm elections, Obama in a rare move from a former president campaigned forcefully against Trump and the Republican Party, though he has mostly refrained from mentioning Trump's name.

Trump, who led the birther conspiracy crusade against Obama when he was in office, has continued to use Obama as a foil while occupying the Oval Office.

Allan Smith is a political reporter for NBC News.

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Obama says 'racism,' 'mommy issues' are contributing to ...

Barack Obama, in full Barack Hussein Obama II, (born August 4, 1961, Honolulu, Hawaii, U.S.), 44th president of the United States (200917) and the first African American to hold the office. Before winning the presidency, Obama represented Illinois in the U.S. Senate (200508). He was the third African American to be elected to that body since the end of Reconstruction (1877). In 2009 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.

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United States: The Barack Obama administration

The crisis worked against McCain, whom many voters associated with the unpopular policies of the administration, and worked for the highly charismatic Obama, whose campaign from its outset had been based on the theme of sweeping political change. Obama defeated McCain, becoming

Obamas father, Barack Obama, Sr., was a teenage goatherd in rural Kenya, won a scholarship to study in the United States, and eventually became a senior economist in the Kenyan government. Obamas mother, S. Ann Dunham, grew up in Kansas, Texas, and Washington state before her family settled in Honolulu. In 1960 she and Barack Sr. met in a Russian language class at the University of Hawaii and married less than a year later.

When Obama was age two, Barack Sr. left to study at Harvard University; shortly thereafter, in 1964, Ann and Barack Sr. divorced. (Obama saw his father only one more time, during a brief visit when Obama was 10.) Later Ann remarried, this time to another foreign student, Lolo Soetoro from Indonesia, with whom she had a second child, Maya. Obama lived for several years in Jakarta with his half sister, mother, and stepfather. While there, Obama attended both a government-run school where he received some instruction in Islam and a Catholic private school where he took part in Christian schooling.

He returned to Hawaii in 1971 and lived in a modest apartment, sometimes with his grandparents and sometimes with his mother (she remained for a time in Indonesia, returned to Hawaii, and then went abroad againpartly to pursue work on a Ph.D.before divorcing Soetoro in 1980). For a brief period his mother was aided by government food stamps, but the family mostly lived a middle-class existence. In 1979 Obama graduated from Punahou School, an elite college preparatory academy in Honolulu.

Obama attended Occidental College in suburban Los Angeles for two years and then transferred to Columbia University in New York City, where in 1983 he received a bachelors degree in political science. Influenced by professors who pushed him to take his studies more seriously, Obama experienced great intellectual growth during college and for a couple of years thereafter. He led a rather ascetic life and read works of literature and philosophy by William Shakespeare, Friedrich Nietzsche, Toni Morrison, and others. After serving for a couple of years as a writer and editor for Business International Corp., a research, publishing, and consulting firm in Manhattan, he took a position in 1985 as a community organizer on Chicagos largely impoverished Far South Side. He returned to school three years later and graduated magna cum laude in 1991 from Harvard Universitys law school, where he was the first African American to serve as president of the Harvard Law Review. While a summer associate in 1989 at the Chicago law firm of Sidley Austin, Obama had met Chicago native Michelle Robinson, a young lawyer at the firm. The two married in 1992.

After receiving his law degree, Obama moved to Chicago and became active in the Democratic Party. He organized Project Vote, a drive that registered tens of thousands of African Americans on voting rolls and that is credited with helping Democrat Bill Clinton win Illinois and capture the presidency in 1992. The effort also helped make Carol Moseley Braun, an Illinois state legislator, the first African American woman elected to the U.S. Senate. During this period, Obama wrote his first book and saw it published. The memoir, Dreams from My Father (1995), is the story of Obamas search for his biracial identity by tracing the lives of his now-deceased father and his extended family in Kenya. Obama lectured on constitutional law at the University of Chicago and worked as an attorney on civil rights issues.

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Barack Obama | Biography, Presidency, & Facts | Britannica.com

MILWAUKEE Former President Barack Obama criticized what he called Republican hypocrisy on Friday during a rally with Democrats in Wisconsin, claiming that conservatives have shown themselves not to be trusted on issues ranging from health care to national security and the deficit.

Mr. Obamas impassioned plea came just 11 days before Novembers midterm elections, in a state where Democrats are hoping to hold a Senate seat, make gains in Republican-held House districts and defeat the Republican governor, Scott Walker.

He also defended Hillary Clinton, the failed 2016 Democratic nominee for president who was dogged by allegations that she had mishandled classified information on a personal email server.

If Republicans cared about Mrs. Clintons emails, Mr. Obama said, theyd be up in arms right now as the Chinese are listening to the presidents iPhone that he leaves in his golf cart.

The New York Times reported on Wednesday that President Trump has continued to use his cellphone despite warnings from aides that his calls are not secure from foreign spies. (Mr. Trump dismissed the report on Thursday.)

Throughout human history, certainly throughout American history, politicians have exaggerated, Mr. Obama said. But what we have not seen before in our recent public life is politicians just blatantly, repeatedly, baldly, shamelessly lying. Making stuff up.

In Washington they have racked up enough indictments to field a football team, he said. Nobody in my administration got indicted. So, how is it that they cleaned things up?

Mr. Obama also took specific issue with recent Republican advertisements about health care which claim the party will protect those with pre-existing conditions. The former president reminded the audience of thousands that Republicans have tried several times to repeal his signature health care law which codified those protections.

Dont be hoodwinked, Mr. Obama said. Dont be bamboozled. Wisconsin, dont fall for that.

[Read more about the political crossroads Wisconsin is facing this election.]

The rally was held at a north-side high school in Milwaukee, and lines stretched for blocks to enter the gym on the balmy Wisconsin day.

Democrats in the state, which voted for Mr. Obama twice but flipped to Mr. Trump in the 2016 election, have said this election is a chance to wrest local leadership roles from Republican control.

Mr. Obama also had a rally with Michigan Democrats scheduled for later Friday afternoon.

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Obama, Rallying in Wisconsin, Warns Democrats: Dont Be ...