Respect and remembrance for Cheney from Bush, Biden and past vice presidents as Trump is excluded

WASHINGTON (AP) — They gathered at the Washington National Cathedral on Thursday — former presidents, vice presidents, sworn political foes and newfound friends — in a show of respect and remembrance for Dick Cheney, the consequential and polarizing vice president who became an acidic scold of President Donald Trump.

Trump, who has been publicly silent about Cheney’s death Nov. 3, was not invited to the memorial service.

Two ex-presidents came: Republican George W. Bush, who eulogized the man who served him as vice president, and Democrat Joe Biden, who once called Cheney “the most dangerous vice president we’ve had probably in American history” but now honors his commitment to his family and to his values.

“Solid and rare and reliable,” Bush said at the service of his vice president, praising a man whose “talent and restraint” exceeded his ego. “Smart and polished, without airs.”

Bush and others noted the understated demeanor of a man who nevertheless wielded great influence in government. “Above all,” Bush said, “I wanted someone with the ability to step into the presidency without getting distracted by the ambition to seek it.”

Among the eulogists, Liz Cheney, the eldest daughter, only obliquely addressed what amounted to a father-daughter feud with the president — a man her dad had called a “coward” for trying to overturn his loss in the 2020 election.

She spoke of her father’s conviction that when confronted with a choice between defending the country and a political party, the country must come first. “Bonds of party must always yield to the single bond we share as Americans,” she said.

Liz Cheney is a former high-ranking House member whose Republican political career was shredded by a MAGA movement angered by her investigation of the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol. Thursday, she chose not to speak directly of Trump.

She spoke of seeing clouds in the shape of angels just before her father died.

Moments before the service began, figures of recent but now receded power mingled: Bush and Biden and their wives sitting in a row together, former Vice Presidents Kamala Harris and Mike Pence chatting side by side in their pew with Al Gore and Dan Quayle together behind them.

Biden greeted Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell, the former longtime Senate leader, and his wife, former labor and transportation secretary Elaine Chao. Behind them sat Democratic Rep. Nancy Pelosi, who spent time talking with another former House speaker, Republican John Boehner. All gathered among the soaring interior columns of the grand cathedral known as “a spiritual home for the nation.”

Others delivering tributes at Thursday’s funeral were Cheney’s longtime cardiologist, Dr. Jonathan Reiner; former NBC News correspondent Pete Williams, who was Cheney’s spokesman at the Pentagon; and several of the former vice president’s grandchildren.

“I’m happy to report that I haven’t given many eulogies," Reiner said in his remarks. “Nobody wants a doctor who is great at funerals."

Reiner recalled doctors telling Cheney decades ago, after the first of multiple heart attacks, that he should abandon his political ambitions then. Yet he kept winning elections as a Wyoming congressman for years after that.

Cheney, he said, was always the “calmest person in the room."

Cheney had lived with heart disease for decades and, after the Bush administration, with a heart transplant. He died at age 84 from complications of pneumonia and cardiac and vascular disease, his family said.

Trump's vice president, JD Vance, on stage at another event in the morning, was asked about Cheney and said: “Obviously there’s some political disagreements there but he was a guy who served his country. We certainly wish his family all the best in this moment of grieving."

Vance was also not invited to the funeral, according to a person familiar with the details who was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The White House lowered its flags to half-staff after Cheney's death, as it said the law calls for, but Trump did not issue the presidential proclamation that often accompanies the death of notable figures, nor has he commented publicly on his passing.

The deeply conservative Cheney's influence in the Bush administration was legendary and, to his critics, tragic.

He advocated for the U.S. invasion of Iraq on the basis of what proved to be faulty intelligence and consistently defended the extraordinary tools of surveillance, detention and inquisition employed in response to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Bush credited him with helping to keep the country safe and stable in a perilous time.

After the 2020 election won by Biden, Liz Cheney served as vice chair of the Democratic-led special House committee that investigated the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. She accused Trump of summoning the violent mob and plunging the nation into “a moment of maximum danger.”

For that, she was stripped of her Republican leadership position and ultimately defeated in a 2022 Republican primary in Wyoming. In a campaign TV ad made for his daughter, Dick Cheney branded Trump a “coward” who “tried to steal the last election using lies and violence to keep himself in power after the voters had rejected him.”

Last year, it did not sit well with Trump when Cheney said he would vote for the Democrat, Harris, in the presidential election.

Trump told Arab and Muslim voters that Dick Cheney’s support for Harris should give them pause, because he “killed more Arabs than any human being on Earth. He pushed Bush, and they went into the Middle East.”

Associated Press writer Michelle L. Price contributed to this report.

A joint services body bearer team carries the flag-draped casket of former Vice President Dick Cheney out of the Washington National Cathedral, Thursday, Nov. 20, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

Former President Joe Biden shakes hands with former Vice President Mike Pence, with Jill Biden and former Vice President Kamala Harris, before the start of the funeral for former Vice President Dick Cheney at the Washington National Cathedral on Thursday, Nov. 20, 2025 in Washington. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Lynne Cheney, seated front right, and daughter Liz Cheney, seated front left, look on during the funeral for former Vice President Dick Cheney at the Washington National Cathedral on Thursday, Nov. 20, 2025 in Washington. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Former Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyoming, speaks a tribute to her father, during the funeral for former Vice President Dick Cheney, at the Washington National Cathedral, Thursday, Nov. 20, 2025 in Washington. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Former Presidents front row from left, George W. Bush with Laura Bush and Joe Biden with Jill Biden, look on as military pall bearers arrive with the casket of former Vice President Dick Cheney at the Washington National Cathedral, Thursday, Nov. 20, 2025 in Washington. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Former Presidents front row from left, George W. Bush with Laura Bush, Joe Biden with Jill Biden and former Vice Presidents Kamala Harris and Mike Pence with Karen Pence, front right, and other invited guests, are seated during the funeral for former Vice President Dick Cheney at the Washington National Cathedral on Thursday, Nov. 20, 2025 in Washington. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Wife of former Vice President Dick Cheney, Lynne Cheney and family preside over the arrival of the casket of former Vice President Dick Cheney at the Washington National Cathedral, Thursday, Nov. 20, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

Former Presidents front row from left, George W. Bush with Laura Bush, Joe Biden with Jill Biden and former Vice Presidents Kamala Harris and Mike Pence with Karen Pence, right, during the funeral for former Vice President Dick Cheney at the Washington National Cathedral on Thursday, Nov. 20, 2025 in Washington. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

A joint services body bearer team carries the flag-draped casket of former Vice President Dick Cheney into the Washington National Cathedral, Thursday, Nov. 20, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

Wife of former Vice President Dick Cheney, Lynne Cheney in wheelchair, along with family preside over the arrival of the casket of former Vice President Dick Cheney at the Washington National Cathedral, Thursday, Nov. 20, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

Wife of former Vice President Dick Cheney, Lynne Cheney in wheelchair, along with daughter, former Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., left, and family preside over the arrival of the casket of former Vice President Dick Cheney at the Washington National Cathedral, Thursday, Nov. 20, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

A joint services body bearer team carries the flag-draped casket of former Vice President Dick Cheney into the Washington National Cathedral, Thursday, Nov. 20, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

Former Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Anthony Fauci and television host Rachel Maddow and other invited guests, are seated before the funeral service for former Vice President Dick Cheney at the Washington National Cathedral, Thursday, Nov. 20, 2025 in Washington. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

FILE - From left to right, Rep. Stephanie Murphy, D-Fla., Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., Vice Chair Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., and Rep. Elaine Luria, D-Va., are seated as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol holds its first public hearing to reveal the findings of a year-long investigation, at the Capitol in Washington, June 9, 2022.(AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)

Former Vice President Al Gore and Dan Quayle and other invited guests, are seated before the funeral service for former Vice President Dick Cheney at the Washington National Cathedral, Thursday, Nov. 20, 2025 in Washington. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Former Senate Majority Leader, Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., center, and former House Speaker, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., left, and other invited guests, are seated before the funeral service for former Vice President Dick Cheney at the Washington National Cathedral, Thursday, Nov. 20, 2025 in Washington. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

The Washington National Cathedral is photographed in Washington, Monday, Nov. 17, 2005. (AP Photo/Mike Pesoli)

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks are rushing higher worldwide, and oil prices are easing Wednesday as hopes build that the war with Iran could end soon. That's even though some of the signals investors saw as hopeful are already under dispute, and several prior bouts of optimism in financial markets quickly got undercut by continued, fierce fighting in the war.

The S&P 500 rallied 0.9% and added to its leap from the day before, which was its best since last spring. That followed even bigger gains for stock markets across Europe and Asia, including an 8.4% surge in South Korea, which were catching up to Wall Street’s rally from Tuesday.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 294 points, or 0.6%, as of 2:08 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 1.3% higher.

Oil prices also fell back toward $100 per barrel after President Donald Trump said late Tuesday that the U.S. military could end its offensive in two to three weeks.

That added to optimism following a couple tenuous signals of hope from earlier Tuesday that Wall Street latched onto, including a news report quoting Iran’s president as saying that it has “the necessary will to end the war” as long as certain requirements are met, including “guarantees to prevent a recurrence of aggression.”

The worry on Wall Street has been that the war may last a long time and keep oil and natural gas from the Persian Gulf out of global markets, which could create a brutal blast of inflation.

But hope has been quick to reverse to doubt on Wall Street, triggering manic swings back and forth for financial markets since the war with Iran began. Trump has also made statements that lifted markets, only to see the gains quickly disappear after increasing his military threats.

Shortly before Wall Street began trading on Wednesday, Trump claimed in a post on his social media network that Iran “has just asked the United States of America for a CEASEFIRE!”

“We will consider when Hormuz Strait is open, free, and clear. Until then, we are blasting Iran into oblivion or, as they say, back to the Stone Ages!!!”

But Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Esmail Baghaei, quickly called that claim “false and baseless,” according to a report on Iranian state television.

Oil prices also remain high, even if they’ve eased recently. The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil, the international standard, was sitting at $101.51 following its declines, which is still up from roughly $70 before the war began.

U.S. gasoline prices rose again overnight to a national average of $4.06 per gallon, according to the auto club AAA.

Iran, meanwhile, hit an oil tanker off the coast of Qatar and Kuwait’s airport on Wednesday while airstrikes battered Tehran as the fighting continued. Iran also continues to hold a grip on the Strait of Hormuz, where a fifth of the world’s traded oil passes during peacetime.

“De-escalation hopes have given markets a lift, but we think the effects of the war would, in many cases, persist even if the war did end soon,” Thomas Mathews, head of markets, Asia Pacific at Capital Economics, said in a research note Wednesday.

“It’s worth thinking through how markets might fare if the war were to end ‘very soon,’” he wrote. “Do markets have further to recover if sentiment continues to improve? The answer is almost certainly yes.”

The White House said Trump will deliver a public address Wednesday evening on the Iran war.

On Wall Street, most stocks rose as Big Tech powered the move higher. Gains of 3.8% for Alphabet and 0.8% for Nvidia were two of the strongest forces lifting the S&P 500.

Eli Lilly climbed 5.1% after U.S. regulators approved its GLP-1 pill for weight loss.

Such gains have pulled the S&P 500, which sits at the heart of many 401(k) accounts, back to within 5.6% of its all-time high set early this year. Just on Monday, the index briefly neared a 10% drop from its record, a steep-enough fall that professional investors have a name for it: a “correction.”

Nike sank 14.5% even though it reported a stronger profit for the latest quarter than expected. Analysts said it gave some lackluster financial forecasts.

Hasbro fell 4.8% after the toy company found someone had gained unauthorized access to its computer network and is working to assess the full impact.

Energy companies fell broadly as oil prices eased. Exxon Mobil slumped 5% and Chevron fell 4.9%.

In stock markets abroad, indexes leaped more than 2% in France and Germany. Asian markets had even bigger gains.

Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 jumped 5.2% after a survey showed business sentiment for major Japanese manufacturers improved despite worries about the Iran war.

In the bond market, Treasury yields held relatively steady after a report said U.S. retailers made more money in February than economists expected. A separate report said U.S. manufacturing growth last month was slightly faster than economists expected.

The 10-year Treasury yield rose to 4.32% from 4.30% late Tuesday.

AP Business Writers Chan Ho-him and Matt Ott contributed.

James Conti works on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Tuesday, March 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Philip Finale works on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Tuesday, March 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Currency traders watch monitors near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), left, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, April 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Currency traders watch monitors near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), top center, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won, top center left, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, April 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Currency traders work at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, April 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

A currency trader reacts near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), right, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, April 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

A screen displays financial information on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Tuesday, March 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)