Trump goes unmentioned but not ignored as Clinton, Bush and Obama step up as essayists on presidents

When George W. Bush wrote an essay this year about another president named George, he avoided mentioning the one named Donald.

So did Barack Obama and Bill Clinton. The three ex-presidents joined a roster of historians and authors in contributing to the In Pursuit project, a 250th-anniversary series that had each writer produce an essay about a president or first lady.

Though the project was explicitly designed to transcend today’s politics, some of its essays nevertheless reflect anxieties that are flaring in the era of President Donald Trump over the use of power, the health of the democracy and the integrity of the presidency.