The long-simmering cold war within the Republican Party has erupted into a full-blown inferno. What was once a battle of policy and private frustration has now become a deeply personal and public fight, all centered on the most sacred and painful day in modern American history. The two figures at the center of this firestorm are the party’s only two living presidents: George W. Bush and Donald J. Trump.

The inciting incident is a series of “incendiary” and “unpatriotic” new statements from Donald Trump, who has reportedly revived one of his most controversial 2016 attacks, this time with even sharper implications. The reaction has been just as explosive. George W. Bush, who has largely maintained a stoic, post-presidential silence, is said to be “livid,” “incensed,” and “furious,” viewing Trump’s latest volley as a “despicable betrayal” of the nation’s memory.

According to reports, Trump, at a recent rally, once again drew a direct and searing comparison between his administration and that of George W. Bush, using the September 11th attacks as a political bludgeon. The alleged comments, which echo his 2016 primary rhetoric, were brutally direct: “The towers came down” on Bush’s watch. The unmistakable, unspoken implication was one of failure, a failure he then contrasted with his own time in office, a time when, as he put it, “you didn’t have to worry about the towers coming down.”

For a nation still bearing the scars of that day, the politicization of 9/11 is a “new low.” But for George W. Bush, it is a personal and profound insult.

Sources close to the 43rd president describe his reaction as nothing short of incandescent rage. For Bush, 9/11 is not a “political football.” It is a “sacrosanct” national tragedy that, in many ways, defined his presidency and forged his legacy. His identity as a leader is “inextricably linked” to the image of him standing on the rubble at Ground Zero, bullhorn in hand, a moment of national unity that transcended politics.

To have that moment, and the memory of the nearly 3,000 lives lost, “politicized” and “twisted” for political gain is, in Bush’s view, a “slap in the face” to every first responder who charged into the smoke, every soldier who fought in the subsequent wars, and every family who lost a loved one. He is reportedly “incensed” at what he sees as a “despicable” attempt to “rewrite history” purely to “deflect” from other issues and score cheap political points.

This, it appears, is the final straw. For years, Bush has “privately stewed,” watching the man who remade his party in his own image. But now, sources say, he has “had enough.” The silence is broken.

In a move that signals a dramatic shift, Bush is reportedly “publicly condemning” Trump’s remarks. This is no longer a private grievance; it is a public call to arms. He is said to be urging the “elders” of the Republican party—the traditional, establishment figures who have largely been sidelined—to “stand up,” “find their backbone,” and “denounce” this rhetoric in no uncertain terms. It is a direct challenge, a gauntlet thrown down, demanding that Republicans finally choose a side in what has become a “fight for the soul of the Republican Party.”

That fight is now exposing a “schism” so deep it threatens to tear the party in two. The GOP is “deeply divided,” and the reactions to Trump’s 9/11 comments have drawn the battle lines clearly.

On one side stand the Trump loyalists and the MAGA base. Far from being “appalled,” they are “doubling down,” “echoing” their leader’s sentiments. In their view, 9/11 was a “failure of the Bush administration,” and Trump is simply the only leader “strong” enough to speak that “truth.” For them, this is not a betrayal of patriotism; it is the very definition of it, a “truth-telling” that defies “politically correct” silence.

On the other side are the moderates, the independents, and the “establishment” Republicans. They are, to put it mildly, “appalled.” Figures like Karl Rove, Bush’s own political architect, are reportedly “scrambling” to do damage control, fully aware of how devastating this rhetoric is. They fear this “unpatriotic” attack will “alienate” the very suburban and moderate voters they desperately need to win back. They see it as a “new low” that confirms their worst fears about where the party is headed.

This is no longer a simple disagreement over tax policy or foreign intervention. The fault line has shifted. The battle is now over “character, patriotism, and the very nature of truth.” The shadow of the towers, a tragedy that once united a grieving country, is now being used as a “political wedge” to deepen the “civil war” for the future of the Republican party.

This is more than a feud between two presidents; it’s a reflection of a nation still grappling with its most painful memories and a party at war with itself. One thing is certain: this battle, ignited by a “despicable” attack on a sacred day, will leave “lasting scars,” and the party that emerges from it may be unrecognizable to the one George W. Bush once led.