For a quarter-century, one of the most enduring images of George W. Bush’s presidency has been the look on his face when he learned that the United States was under attack.
It has been mocked by comedians, weaponized by political opponents and replayed endlessly in documentaries and retrospectives.
Now Bush has painted it himself.
The former president posted the image Friday, on the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, part of a new collection of paintings revisiting the day that transformed his presidency and the country.
Bush was visiting Emma E. Booker Elementary School in Sarasota, Florida, on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, sitting with a class of second-graders during a reading exercise. He had already been told that a plane had struck the World Trade Center, an incident initially thought to be an accident, when White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card entered the classroom and leaned toward the president’s right ear.
“A second plane hit the second tower,” Card told him. “America is under attack.”
Bush’s expression changed. But he stayed in his chair for roughly seven more minutes as the children finished reading “The Pet Goat.”
The footage became one of the defining images of his presidency — used by critics as evidence of a commander in chief frozen at a moment of crisis. Michael Moore devoted a lengthy sequence to it in his 2004 documentary “Fahrenheit 9/11,” lingering on Bush as he sat silently in the classroom. Bush has said he was trying to remain calm to avoid panicking the children — and the nation.
Twenty-five years later, Bush has returned to that moment with a paintbrush.
The classroom scene is among 16 new works in “Remembering 9/11,” a collection on display this month at the George W. Bush Presidential Museum in Dallas, the institution announced.
Bush took up painting after leaving the White House in 2009 and has since made it a conspicuous part of his post-presidency, including making portraits of military veterans who served after 9/11, in wars Bush launched during his presidency.
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