Jeb Bush headed on overseas trip in June
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush is following in the footsteps of several of his fellow potential presidential candidates by traveling across the Atlantic to flex his foreign policy muscles.
Bush will travel to Germany, Poland and Estonia in June. It will his be his first trip to the latter two countries and his first trip to Germany since 2011. Since leaving office in 2007, Bush has taken 89 foreign trips that have covered 29 countries.
In Germany, he'll speak to the Christian Democratic Union Economic Council, one of the major economic conferences in Germany. Other events have not yet been announced, but Bush is expected to meet with leaders of civil and non-governmental organizations as well as policy experts and business leaders to focus on economic and security issues, as well as U.S. alliances with the three countries.
It is unclear whether Bush will be an actual or would-be presidential candidate by the time he embarks on the trip. So far he is reportedly raising money at an impressive pace for his leadership political action committee and super PAC, Right to Rise, but has not yet hinted when he'll formally get into the race.
Given the prominent role that foreign policy is expected to play in the 2016 election, several current and former governors have traveled abroad as a way of boosting their international profile. But these trips can often reveal weaknesses for the politicians as they face increased scrutiny.
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker said he was going to "punt" a question on whether he believes in evolution during a speech at the Chatham House in London in February. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's three-day trip to London earlier that month went awry after the second day, when he fielded a question about the United States measles outbreak and said that parents should have "some measure of choice" in whether to vaccinate their children. Scores of headlines declaring the trip a "train wreck" and a "disaster".