George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician and businessman. He was the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. He is the son of former U.S. President George H. W. Bush and former U.S. First Lady Barbara Bush. Before becoming president, he was the Governor of Texas from 1995 to 2000. He is a Republican.
He flew warplanes in the Texas and Alabama Air National Guard. After graduating from Yale College in 1968 and Harvard Business School in 1975, he worked in the oil industry. In 1977, he married Laura Welch and ran for the U.S. House of Representatives, but lost. He later co-owned the Texas Rangers baseball team.
In 1994, he was elected Governor of Texas, defeating the incumbent governor, Democrat Ann Richards. As governor, Bush successfully backed legislation for tort reform, gave more money for education, set higher standards for schools, and changed the criminal justice system. Bush also helped make Texas the leading producer of wind powered electricity in the U.S.
In 2000, Bush was elected President of the United States when he defeated Democratic incumbent Vice President Al Gore in a very close election. He became the fourth person to be elected president without winning the popular vote. He is the second son of a former United States president to himself become president, the first being John Quincy Adams, the son of John W. Adams.
Bush was inaugurated in January 2001. As president, his early focus was on domestic issues. He cut taxes, passed an education reform bill, made changes to Medicare, and changed abortion laws. On September 11, 2001, the United States was attacked by terrorists. As a result of these attacks, Bush created the Department of Homeland Security and started a "War on Terror" that began with a war in Afghanistan in 2001. He also signed into law the Patriot Act in order to spy on people believed to be terrorists. In 2003, he ordered an invasion of Iraq, which started the Iraq War. The reason why he did this was because his administration claimed that Iraq had a weapons of mass destruction (WMD) program, and that the Iraqi government was a threat to the U.S. However, no WMDs or a program for WMDs were ever found.
He was re-elected to a second term in 2004. In his second term, Bush reached multiple free trade agreements and was able to put John Roberts and Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court. He wanted to make major changes to Social Security and immigration laws, but these changes did not pass in Congress. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq continued, and in 2007 he sent more troops to Iraq. Bush received criticism from both sides politically for his handling of Hurricane Katrina and for the midterm dismissal of U.S. attorneys. In December 2007, the U.S. entered the Great Recession. This made the Bush administration create programs protect the country's financial system, such as the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP).
Bush left office in January 2009 and was succeeded by Democrat Barack Obama. He has a ranch in Crawford, Texas, which is near Waco. In 2010, he published a memoir called Decision Points. His presidential library opened in 2013. He is not ranked very high in presidential opinion polls, but he has started to become more popular again after his presidency ended.
Bush was one of the most polarised U.S. presidents in history; he received the highest recorded approval ratings right after the 9/11 attacks, but one of the lowest such ratings during the 2008 financial crisis.