Trump and Vance snubbed for Cheney funeral, but Biden, Bush and four former living vice presidents attending

(CNN) — Past presidents and politicians of both parties are gathering Thursday in Washington, DC, for former Vice President Dick Cheney’s funeral — sending off a key figure of pre-MAGA Republican politics.

But neither President Donald Trump nor Vice President JD Vance were invited to Cheney’s funeral, according to a source familiar with the matter.

Cheney is receiving full military honors at the memorial service, which is expected to be a bipartisan who’s who of Washington dignitaries.

More than 1,000 guests were expected at the invitation-only funeral Thursday morning at Washington’s National Cathedral — including four living former vice presidents and two former presidents.

Former presidents George W. Bush and Joe Biden are attending to pay their respects, along with former vice presidents Kamala Harris, Mike Pence, Al Gore and Dan Quayle. There are also a number of Supreme Court Justices, including Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Elena Kagan who were expected to attend. A large number of past and present Cabinet members from both Republican and Democratic administrations are also in attendance, as well as congressional leaders from both sides of the aisle.

Speaker Emeritus Nancy Pelosi is attending along with Senate Majority Leader John Thune and former leader Mitch McConnell.

CNN has reached out to the White House for comment. Axios was first to report that Trump was not invited to the funeral.

The funeral’s guest list itself is a nod to a time when Washington was not so polarized and politicians from both sides of the aisle paid their respects when a dignitary passed away.

Cheney’s funeral is being held at 11 a.m. ET. Speakers will include Bush, Cheney’s daughter former Rep. Liz Cheney and some of his grandchildren.

Cheney, who served as Bush’s vice president from 2001 to 2009, died on November 3 at the age of 84. Prior to being elected vice president, Cheney served as defense secretary, White House chief of staff and as a congressman representing Wyoming.

He was considered one of the most powerful and influential vice presidents in history, but his role as the architect of the Iraq War saw him leave office deeply unpopular and cemented a polarizing legacy.

While official Washington funerals usually include invites to the White House, excluding Trump should not be a surprise.

Cheney was a lifetime hardline conservative who endorsed Trump’s 2016 campaign. But he spent the last years of his life speaking out against Trump, particularly after his daughter then-Rep. Liz Cheney drew the president’s ire for her prominent role in a congressional committee investigating the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol.

In 2022, Cheney described Trump as a coward and said no one was a “greater threat to our republic.”

Trump has not publicly expressed his condolences or commented on Cheney’s death. Vance, prior to Cheney’s funeral on Thursday, remembered the former vice president as “a guy who served his country” and wished his family “all the best in this moment of grieving.”

Pence, who similarly broke with Trump over the president’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election, said Cheney gave him two pieces of advice shortly after Pence was elected vice president in 2016. He urged Pence to spend “a lot of time on Capitol Hill” and to receive the president’s daily brief first thing in the morning, before attending any meeting with the president, in order to be better prepared for what would be discussed.

“It was a way that he said, ‘You will be better equipped to be able to advise the president if you know in advance what’s coming and can run that through the filter of the president’s priorities,’” Pence told CNN’s Jeff Zeleny before the funeral.

The White House offered a muted reaction after Cheney’s death with press secretary Karoline Leavitt telling reporters that Trump was “aware” the former vice president had died and noting that flags had been lowered to half-staff.

Honorary pallbearers at Cheney’s funeral will include members of his Secret Service detail; his former chiefs of staff, David Addington and Scooter Libby; and photographer David Hume Kennerly.

On one of the last pages of the service leaflet is a quote from the writer and naturalist John Muir, saying: “The mountains are calling and I must go.”