- Is the only U.S. president ever to father twins.
- Calls all regular White House strategy meetings "strategery" meetings in honor of Will Ferrell's portrayal of him on Saturday Night Live (1975).
- His favorite actors are Chuck Norris and Sylvester Stallone. Both attended his first presidential inauguration on January 20, 2001.
- Elected to two terms as Texas Governor, defeating Governor Ann Richards in 1994, winning re-election in 1998, and thereby became the first governor in Texas history to be elected to two consecutive four-year terms.
- Lost the popular vote, just like John Quincy Adams, the first president to be the son of a former president. However, Adams did not win the electoral college; that election was decided by Congress. Bush was able to win the disputed electoral college, ultimately receiving 271 electoral votes to Al Gore's 266 electoral votes.
- He was the first sitting US President to visit an Olympic games outside the United States when he observed the 2008 Olympic Summer Games in Beijing, China.
- Refuses to publicly criticize or critique his Presidential successors.
- Is the first US president to hold an MBA (Master of Business Administration) degree.
- Was an F-102 pilot with the Air National Guard.
- Quit smoking cigarettes in the 1980s, but continues to smoke occasional cigars.
- Collects autographed baseballs and owns over 250.
- 9th cousin twice removed of John Kerry, his rival in the 2004 election. Both are descended from Edmund Reade (1563-1623).
- Is the only serving U.S. President to never have been portrayed on The Simpsons (1989). The only exception was when Homer Simpson used a crude cut-out of him to fool his father, ex-President George Bush, in episode Two Bad Neighbors (1996). At the time, he was the Governor of Texas.
- Was the third Republican, and fourth President overall, from Texas since 1953, after Republicans Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953-1961), George Bush (1989-1993), and Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson (1963-1969).
- Served in the Texas Air National Guard.
- Arrested in 1976 for driving under the influence of alcohol, in Kennebunkport, Maine. Pled guilty, paid fine, and had driver's license suspended for 30 days.
- He owns his look-alike puppet from the French show Les Guignols de l'info (1988).
- Between 1952 and 2004, every Republican presidential ticket, except one, included the name of either Richard Nixon, Bob Dole, or someone named Bush. 1952 - Eisenhower/Nixon, 1956 - Eisenhower/Nixon, 1960 - Nixon/Lodge, 1964 - Goldwater/Miller (the only exception), 1968 - Nixon/Agnew, 1972 - Nixon/Agnew, 1976 - Ford/Dole, 1980 - Reagan/Bush, 1984 - Reagan/Bush, 1988 - Bush/Quayle, 1992 - Bush/Quayle, 1996 - Dole/Kemp, 2000 - Bush/Cheney, 2004 - Bush/Cheney. This was a period of 52 years and 14 presidential elections.
- He began his career in the oil and gas business in Midland, Texas in 1975 and worked in the energy industry until 1986.
- Enjoys playing golf.
- According to Karl Rove, his favorite science fiction TV series is Babylon 5 (1993).
- The first President in 112 years to lose the popular vote and win the Electoral College vote. The next time that this happened was 16 years later, when Donald Trump was elected.
- He was the managing general partner of the Texas Rangers baseball team from 1989-1994.
- Has fraternal twin daughters, Barbara Bush and Jenna Bush Hager, were born November 25, 1981.
- (Fall 2000) Daughter Barbara Bush is attending Yale University, her father's (class of 1968), her grandfather's (George Bush, class of 1948), her great grandfather's (US Senator Prescott Bush, class of 1917), and her great-great-great grandfather's (Rev. James Smith Bush, class of 1844) alma mater.
- Is the first father or son of a president to serve two terms. John Adams, John Quincy Adams, and his own father, George Bush, all lost their bids for re-election.
- Was re-elected as President of the United States on Tuesday, November 2, 2004, receiving 59,459,765 votes (51% of the popular vote) and 286 electoral votes to Democratic challenger John Kerry's 55,949,407 votes (48% of the popular vote) and 252 electoral votes. Headed a Republican Party that controlled the White House, Senate and Congress, and also has a majority (28 of 49, with one to-be-announced) of Governors in the U.S. until the 2006 mid-term congressional elections, at which time the Republican party lost control of both the Senate and the House of Representatives.
- He has been portrayed on Saturday Night Live (1975) by Will Ferrell, Darrell Hammond, Chris Parnell and Will Forte.
- He was raised in Midland and Houston, Texas, USA, with four siblings, Jeb Bush, Neil Bush, Marvin Bush, and Doro Bush (Dorothy Bush Koch). His fifth sibling, younger sister Robin, died from leukemia at the age of three in 1953.
- Arrested twice for college pranks (charges dropped) for celebrating a Yale football victory by pulling up Princeton goal posts and for "borrowing" a large Christmas wreath from a store door (source: Washington Post).
- His twin daughters have been in trouble with the law in recent months. In October 2000, Barbara Bush tried to use a fake ID to buy alcohol at a bar in New Haven, CT, but was not served and was not arrested. In February 2001, Jenna Bush Hager sent her Secret Service agents to bail her friend out of jail after he had been arrested for underage drinking. In April 2001, Barbara gave her Secret Service agents the slip while on her way to a WWF match in NYC. Also in April 2001, Jenna was cited for underage drinking at an Austin bar and pleaded no contest to the charges. She paid $51.25 in court costs, performed eight hours of community service doing clerical and research work at the Mexic-Arte Museum in Austin, and attended eight hours of alcohol awareness classes. In May 2001 both Barbara and Jenna were cited for alcohol offenses. Barbara pleaded no contest to being a minor in possession of alcohol and was sentenced to probation, eight hours of community service, alcohol awareness classes, and a $100 fine. Jenna pleaded innocent to trying to buy alcohol with a fake ID and will be tried in Austin on July 31, 2001. (June 2001)
- His SAT score was 1206 (566 verbal, 640 math).
- Resides, with his wife Laura Bush, outside Dallas, Texas in semi-retirement, in a house purchased during his last few months in office; and makes occasional public appearances as a motivational speaker. (February 2010)
- Is the cousin of Billy Bush.
- Son of 41st President of the United States George Bush (George Herbert Walker Bush) and Barbara Bush, and paternal grandson of Connecticut U.S. Senator Prescott Bush.
- His succession to the Presidency was ultimately decided by the Supreme Court, in a 5-4 split decision, after a six week battle over who actually won the election.
- Recognized as President-elect of the United States on December 13, 2000, following the concession of Vice President Al Gore, ending over a month of controversy over the result of the election.
- He, his father, and grandfather, all held membership in Yale University's Skull and Bones Society, as did his 2004 presidential election opponent, John Kerry.
- His cumulative undergraduate GPA at Yale was 2.35.
- Was the first president in four presidential elections to win the majority of the popular vote, 51% in 2004. The last previous president to do so was his father, George Bush in 1988. Additionally, in 2004, he was the only Republican nominee to win the popular vote in a string of six elections, which included his win of the electoral college in 2000 while losing the popular vote to Al Gore. Republicans lost the popular vote in 1992, 1996, 2000, 2008, 2012 and 2016.
- Since 1932, the fate of the incumbent party has always paralleled the outcome of the final pre-election football game played by the Washington Redskins. In 2004, he became the first presidential candidate to break that pattern, by winning a second term as president despite a Redskins loss.
- Is the first U.S. President to receive an acting nomination and then subsequently the win, from the Razzie Awards. He was nominated for and won Worst Actor in the film Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004). Though technically he was not acting in the film, merely playing himself via archive footage.
- Unlike his father, he has no sons to pass on the name of George Bush. Instead, he has a nephew named George P. Bush, who is the son of his brother, Jeb Bush.
- A statement Bush made in January 2001 referred to the "operating location near Groom Lake", which is the first official recognition of the existence of Area 51.
- In the late 1960s attended Yale University along with future Doonesbury cartoonist Garry Trudeau. They served on the dormitory social committee simultaneously.
- Had both the highest and lowest approval ratings of any president according to Gallup polls. Bush enjoyed a 90 percent approval rating following the 9/11 attacks, but by the end of his presidency his approval ratings were around 25 percent in late 2008 as his presidency was nearing its end.
- He was the first sitting president to visit Sweden, in 2001.
- Daughters Barbara Bush and Jenna Bush Hager were named for their grandmothers, George W. Bush's mother Barbara Bush, and Laura Bush's mother Jenna Welch.
- Bush ran for, and lost, the 1978 race for Congress from Texas's 19th congressional district. The Democrat who won, Kent Hance, portrayed him as out of touch with the constituents of the district. Bush lost the election by approximately 6,000 votes (6%) out of the 103,000 votes cast in the general election.
- Under a law signed by immediate predecessor President Bill Clinton, George W. Bush was the first president to earn $400,000 salary per year as of his inauguration on January 20, 2001. This represented a doubling of the previous presidential salary of $200,000 per year, which had been in place since January 20, 1969, and was the pay rate of Presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George Bush, and Bill Clinton.
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