A person familiar with the former presidents’ appeal said that although the White House was notified ahead of the public announcement, the effort was always intended to be only the ex-presidents without participation from the current commander in chief.
The rollouts of those efforts, however, did include the sitting president. Obama brought George W. Bush and Clinton to the White House Rose Garden to announce the Haiti relief effort, and Bush brought his father and Clinton to the Roosevelt Room to announce the tsunami appeal. The Katrina efforts emerged from the tsunami coordination.
So you have an established history here of disaster followed by Presidentially involved fundraising...
I’m proud to stand with Presidents for #OneAmericaAppeal.”
Emphasis on stand vs sit?
The “Presidents Club” has existed in an uneasy state since Trump was elected. The normal comity between past holders of the job and the current occupant has been disrupted by Trump’s frequent criticism of Obama, his continued attacks on the Clintons and his general disregard for the usual displays of decorum offered in the job. He’s not believed to have spoken to any ex-presidents since taking office in January.
You can also look at Trump's donations and it's a bit patterned:
Also check out this earlier photo where they all have their ties on:
https://www.cnn.com/2017/09/07/politics/george-hw-bush-former-presidents-harvey/index.html
https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/stellar/prod/150424140700-presidents-april-24.jpg?q=x_37,y_50,h_1616,w_2872,c_crop/h_653,w_1160/f_webp
So you have an established history here of disaster followed by Presidentially involved fundraising...
Emphasis on stand vs sit?
You can also look at Trump's donations and it's a bit patterned:
https://www.cnn.com/2017/09/06/politics/trump-harvey-donation/index.html