President Donald Trump has ordered all federal government offices and agencies to close on Wednesday, Dec. 5, in tribute to former President George H.W. Bush in a national day of mourning.
In the executive order issued Saturday, Trump said the honor is meant "as a mark of respect for George Herbert Walker Bush, the forty-first President of the United States."
“It is with great sadness that we mark the passing of one of America’s greatest points of light, the death of President George H.W. Bush,” Trump said in a White House statement Saturday.
"Points of light" is a reference to the phrase Bush used several times in speeches during his presidency and that he used as the name for a nonprofit he launched in support of volunteerism.
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Bush died Friday night at his home in Houston at the age of 94. His wife of 73 years, Barbara Bush, preceded him in death last April.
The 41st president will lie in state in the Capitol rotunda in Washington beginning on Monday through Wednesday morning. A memorial service at the National Cathedral in Washington will follow. Another service is planned in Houston on Thursday before Bush is finally laid to rest next to Barbara Bush at his presidential library at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas.
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