President-elect Donald Trump, who at times praised Jimmy Carter and at others criticized and mocked him, appeared in the Capitol rotunda on Wednesday to pay tribute before the body of the 39th president of the United States a day before his funeral in the country’s capital.
Carter was a frequent target of Trump’s ridicule during his 2024 campaign, and the Republican lashed out again this week at the Georgia Democrat for ceding control of the Panama Canal to the Central American nation during his term more than four decades ago.
Trump, who plans to attend Carter’s funeral at Washington National Cathedral on Thursday, carried himself gravely at the Capitol, walking solemnly into the rotunda accompanied by his wife, Melania, and stopping in front of the casket draped in the American flag. , which rests on Lincoln’s catafalque and is surrounded by a military honor guard.
Trump ridiculed President Joe Biden and Carter throughout his 2024 presidential campaign.
“Jimmy Carter is happy because he had a brilliant presidency compared to Biden,” Trump often said, using a version of the phrase even as former first lady Rosalynn Carter was on her deathbed in 2023 and during the Carter’s 100th birthday on October 1, 2024.
On Tuesday, the day Carter’s remains arrived in Washington, Trump added: “Personally, I liked him. I didn’t agree with their policies. “He thought giving up the Panama Canal was a good thing.”
Members of Congress, Capitol staff and former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy also joined the long line of mourners. Lynda Robb and Luci Baines Johnson, daughters of President Lyndon Johnson, also paid tribute. Baines Johnson blew a kiss towards the coffin as he walked away.
Carter, the oldest American president, died on December 29 at the age of 100.
A graduate of the United States Naval Academy, a submarine officer and a peanut farmer before entering politics, Carter came to the White House in 1976 as an outsider in the wake of the Vietnam War and the Watergate scandal.
His presidency was marked by four turbulent years of economic instability and international crises that culminated in his electoral defeat by Republican Ronald Reagan.
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