At the serene Prairie Chapel Ranch, nestled outside Waco, Texas, once dubbed the Western White House, tranquility reigns.

Just last week, former President George W. Bush organized his ninth annual W100K mountain bike ride, a meaningful two-day event dedicated to honoring wounded veterans. The ride traversed the expansive 40 miles of trails winding through the picturesque 1,600-acre estate.

While Bush still owns the ranch, he primarily resides two hours away. His current home is a $5 million residence situated in Preston Hollow, a prestigious enclave in Dallas.

This red-brick abode, featuring stunning floor-to-ceiling windows, is tucked away in a gated cul-de-sac within a neighborhood fondly referred to as the ‘honeypot.’

An early riser, Bush maintains a morning phone call routine with his close friend and former Commerce Secretary, Donald Evans. He indulges in painting within his studio and is a self-proclaimed ‘golfaholic,’ frequently spotted on various local golf courses.

Aside from his artistic and athletic pursuits, Bush is an avid sports fan. He often cheers for the Texas Rangers baseball team and recently took center stage for the coin toss at a Dallas Cowboys game.

It is a relatively uneventful retirement and it may seem like he has checked out of politics.

But his public interventions have become more frequent of late, and his supporters are demanding more.

‘President Bush, please, man, we could use your voice right now,’ former chair of the Republican National Committee Michael Steele pleaded recently as he looked into a TV camera and banged his fist on a desk.

‘You have a voice that would resonate with a lot more Americans than some folks around you are telling you.’

Acolytes of the Bush family have always known they would have to ride out Trump’s second term.

But many have never accepted that arguably the most successful ever American political dynasty ended on January 20, 2009, the day ‘W’ left the White House for the final time.

Now, rumors are stirring of a plot to end the so-called ‘Bush Exile’ and take back the GOP from the so-called scourge of Trumpism.

Behind the scenes, and still with deep connections around the country, a shadow Republican Party is lying in wait to take over when Trump is gone.

And, while the former president is determined not to publicly criticize Trump – much to the frustration of some of his former aides – he may not be averse to quietly helping to shape the Republican Party’s long-term future. 

A challenge from a Bush-aligned presidential candidate may not come until the 2030s.

But amid current turmoil in the GOP, and with Trump constitutionally barred from standing for a third term, there is a growing push for it to happen in 2028.

‘He (Trump) knows that there’s no third term option,’ one former Bush official with a visceral hatred of Trump told the Daily Mail.

‘There’s no doubt Vance has a head start as Vice President. But I don’t think it’s locked in by any stretch.

‘There will be a big open field within the Republican Party (in 2028).’

The enmity between Trump and the Bushes is not just personal, it is fundamentally policy driven.

In 2016 Trump captured the Republican Party by rejecting Bush’s hawkish foreign policy and ‘forever wars’ in the Middle East, decrying the trillions of dollars they cost and the interventionism of ‘neocons’ like Dick Cheney.

But former Bush officials feel they have been vindicated by what they see as a failure of Trump’s policy of placating Vladimir Putin.

‘Putin feels he has a free hand now,’ one former Bush official said, adding that Trump is getting bad advice.

‘He’s consciously surrounded himself with yes men and yes women. That’s something he thinks will serve him better because he won’t be constrained by the deep state but, in fact, it will not serve him well, and won’t serve the country well either.’

There is no doubt Trump retains a stranglehold over the Republican Party.

But a recent AP/NORC poll found only 68 percent of Republicans approved of his management of the federal government, down from 81 percent in March.

Earlier this year, a Gallup poll found George W. Bush at 52 percent approval among Americans, ahead of Trump’s 48 percent.

The more time elapses from Bush’s exit the more his stock rises. In his few public appearances he appears an increasingly avuncular figure.

Meanwhile, Trump’s fury at Bush only seems to increase.

In 2021, Trump said: ‘I have never got so much as a thank-you note from that ungrateful b*****d. I don’t know, maybe he’s too busy with his so-called paintings to write.’

In August this year, Trump moved White House portraits of Bush and his late father, President George H. W. Bush, to a hidden stairwell where visitors would not see them.

Coincidentally, in the very same week, George W. Bush and his brother Jeb, the former Florida Governor, were among family luminaries who gathered for a secret, and potentially very consequential, event at the dynasty’s summer retreat in Kennebunkport on the Maine coast.

The compound at Walker’s Point was known as the ‘Summer White House’ during the Bush presidencies.

Unpublicized and with no media present, a total of 65 friends of the family gathered there and poured money into a pot to help kick off a new Bush political run.

Tech entrepreneur Jonathan Bush, 56, cousin of ‘W’ and Jeb, and brother of TV personality Billy Bush, will bid to become Governor of the moderate state of Maine in 2026. 

If he wins, it would be the third state governorship held by the Bush family.

Both George W. Bush and Jeb Bush used their governorships – of Texas and Florida respectively – as springboards for presidential runs.

A spokesman for Jonathan Bush’s ‘Maine for Keeps’ campaign said he was ‘especially proud to have his family standing strongly by his side.’

While any intervention in Republican politics is risky for the ex-president he is believed to have been particularly irked recently by Trump’s decision to dismantle USAID.

In June, Bush addressed the department’s outgoing staff in a privately recorded farewell video, decrying cuts to a global program he started – the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).

In what was perceived as a swipe at Trump, he said: ‘Is it in our national interests that 25 million people who would have died now live? I think it is, and so do you.’

However, if Jonathan Bush is to carry the dynasty’s torch, he will face challenges following previous revelations about his private life.

The Daily Mail revealed in 2018 that he had confessed to ‘numerous physical altercations’ with his ex-wife Sarah Selden, according to court papers from a Massachusetts family court during a 2006 custody battle over the couple’s five children.

In the court papers his wife alleged he ‘screamed at her, directly into her face, calling her a ‘w****’… while pushing her into the wall and repeatedly slamming his closed fist into her sternum, his hand landing just inches from their baby who was crying.’

In a statement at the time Jonathan Bush said: ‘I take complete responsibility for all these regrettable incidents involving my dear former wife.

‘They occurred during a particularly difficult personal time in my life. I have worked very hard since then to demonstrate my remorse.’

At the time Sarah Selden said: ‘Like many families, ours is not perfect. Neither of us are proud of the events that occurred during our divorce.’

In a recent campaign video, Jonathan Bush said: ‘The truth of that story is we did have a difficult divorce. Sarah and I did things that we both regret. And we’ve also forgiven one and other.

‘In fact, we went to the judge and asked for joint custody, and after reviewing all of the information, were granted it. We have co-parented well for the last 20 years.’

If his gubernatorial bid succeeds, it could mark a turning point for the Bush dynasty.

After the riot at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, scores of former Bush officials left the Republican Party, joining anti-Trump groups like The Lincoln Project and Republican Voters Against Trump, which could ultimately provide electoral infrastructure for a Bush-aligned candidate.

In 2024 the waters were tested by Nikki Haley, who became something of a stalking horse for Bushism.

It was notable that she was accompanied on the trail by Chris Sununu, the Governor of New Hampshire, and scion of another Republican dynasty.

Thirty-six years earlier George H.W. Bush had with him John Sununu, Chris’s father, who was then the Governor of New Hampshire and became Bush’s White House chief of staff.

Ultimately, Haley was demolished by Trump in the 2024 Republican primary.

There was another false start two years earlier when George Prescott Bush, Jeb’s son, ran for Attorney General of Texas against the ultra-conservative Ken Paxton.

Paxton, who was backed by Trump, pledged to ‘end the Bush dynasty’ and appeared to do just that, winning by 34 points.

But, already new Bushes are emerging, and efforts to end the family’s exile are growing.

Trump’s approval rating recently dropped to 36 percent in an AP/NORC poll, with 62 percent disapproving.

The Republican Party is riven by schisms over the Epstein scandal, what some see as Trump’s preoccupation with foreign wars, and tariffs. 

Writing recently in the Wall Street Journal, Karl Rove, the adviser once known as ‘Bush’s brain,’ said: ‘His tariff demands are weighing him down.

‘Voters won’t blame foreign countries for higher prices or fewer goods. They’ll blame Donald Trump and his Republican Party.’

The emphasis was on ‘his.’

Ultimately, when Trump is in the rear view mirror, it could open the door within the Republican Party for the rise of an ‘anti-MAGA’ heir to Bush.