Dick Cheney’s Death Brought Trump’s Enemies List to Life
A day at the National Cathedral with a scrambled group of mourners.
What does it say about the pre-Trump version of the GOP that it really only ever rears its head at funerals?
In Trump’s first term, it was John McCain’s (The New Yorker: “John McCain’s Funeral Was the Biggest Resistance Meeting Yet”) and George H.W. Bush’s (Politico: “Bush’s Funeral Wasn’t About Trump. But Of Course It Was”).
Yesterday, it was Dick Cheney’s.
Conservative luminaries who once ran point at Republican National Conventions or the Heritage Foundation (currently convulsing over its own Trumpist swerve) now get the mic only at Washington’s National Cathedral — a majestic setting, to be sure, but one better known for fond farewells than expressions of vitality.
As Washington paid homage to Cheney, one of its most voracious political animals — a man who methodically climbed the ladder, from congressional intern, to Nixon aide, to Gerald Ford’s White House chief of staff (the youngest person to hold the role, at age 34), to congressman, to whip, to Defense Secretary, and finally vice president — the service was fairly content-neutral.
9/11 was mentioned once (by Cheney’s cardiologist Jonathan Reiner, who helped treat the ex-VP’s decades-long battle with heart disease); the Iraq War not at all; and “enhanced interrogation” only if you count the stone labeled “GITMO” that sits outside the cathedral bathrooms (yes, it’s the same one).
Instead, Cheney was remembered primarily as a family man, including with touching tributes by three of his grandchildren, one of whom recounted the former vice president’s turn as a “rodeo grandpa,” traveling with her across Wyoming as she competed in equestrian events.
Just like there weren’t many references to the specific events of the George W. Bush administration (including by the former president himself) beyond general references to patriotism and service, there was also nothing explicitly said about the Republican Party’s current leader.
If you squinted, though, you could sense a contrast being drawn, as speakers described a good-humored, self-deprecating quiet presence, student of history, and loyal husband of 61 years. “In a profession that attracts talkers, he was a thinker and a listener,” Bush said, adding that he was “smart and polished, without airs; courteous and approachable, seeing everyone as an equal; a gentleman by nature” — and also “calm, reticent, undramatic, and trustworthy,” “sparing and measured with words,” and a “highly disciplined mind” whose “talent and restraint exceeded his ego.”
“Dick was a stoical man, and I doubt he left this life with any complaints about the time given to him, or its end,” Bush said, a description that is hard to imagine being applied to the sitting president, who was posting complaints to Truth Social literally as the funeral was going on. “With Malice Toward None,” composed by John Williams for the movie “Lincoln,” was played as the Cheneys took their seats.
Other times, you didn’t have to squint.
The former NBC News correspondent Pete Williams — who started his career covering Cheney as a Wyoming reporter, then served as his spokesman in Congress and the Pentagon before making his return to journalism — told the audience that Cheney once crossed out the word “bureaucrat” and replaced it with “federal official” on a press release that Williams had written for him.
“As the son of a man who worked for the Agriculture Department, he respected people who chose to serve their country,” Williams explained.
Like at McCain’s funeral, the most pointed comments of the day were made by a famous daughter, though this one had even more experience crossing swords with 45-slash-47. It is because of Trump that Liz Cheney no longer serves as a congresswoman from Wyoming (the job her father once held): he ran her out of the GOP in a primary challenge after the younger Cheney voted to impeach him (and then helped lead an investigation into him) in response to January 6th.
Liz and Dick Cheney both endorsed Kamala Harris in 2024, breaking lifelong party ties to confront a man they viewed — as Dick put it in a statement at the time — as posing a “greater threat to our republic” than anyone in “our nation’s 248-year history.”
Recounting that Dick, a Republican, was drawn to public service because of John F. Kennedy, a Democrat, Liz told the bipartisan crowd on Thursday that her father “knew that bonds of party must always yield to the single bond we share as Americans.”
And then, in the most-quoted line of the memorial, she added: “For him, a choice between defense of the Constitution and defense of your political party was no choice at all.”
But the real reference to Trump wasn’t in the eulogies: it was the guest list.
Sure, Trump wasn’t invited, and neither was JD Vance, even as Kamala Harris and Joe Biden (on his 83rd birthday) sat solemnly in the church pews.
But the #Resistance representation went even deeper. At times, squinting at the guests from a balcony above, it felt like a Trump rally speech — the part where he rails against his enemies — had come to life before my eyes.
For paid subscribers: Read on to learn the most surprising guests (including some who haven’t been reported elsewhere), as well as my broader takeaways about what Cheney’s funeral tells us about the state of the Republican Party and our ongoing political realignment.