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Trump to Attend Jimmy Carter's Funeral. Will He Behave Himself? [1]

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Date: 2025-01-01

There were some news items this morning that Trump says he’ll attend Carter’s funeral:

Asked by The Associated Press as he walked into a New Year’s Eve party at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, Trump said, “I’ll be there.” Trump declined to share whether he had spoken to members of Carter’s family.

It is customary for living former presidents and the current president to attend the funeral of one of their own, and indeed current President Biden will not just attend but deliver one of the eulogies: Biden says Carter asked him to do his eulogy. However, there is some history here as well as some current news, which warrants raising the question: Will Trump behave himself at Jimmy Carter’s funeral?

He has a questionable record on that score. Bush funeral: Trump sits with fellow presidents but still stands alone.

When the others sang an opening hymn, [Trump’s] mouth did not move. When the others read the Apostles’ Creed, he stood stoically. And when one eulogist after another testified to George H.W. Bush’s integrity and character and honesty and bravery and compassion, Trump sat and listened, often with his lips pursed and his arms crossed over his chest. . . . Trump was in the company of all his living predecessors for the first time Wednesday, and the encounter was plainly uncomfortable. . . . The frostiness of Trump’s interactions with his predecessors was all the more apparent when former president George W. Bush entered the cathedral a few minutes later.

When Sen. John McCain died during Trump’s first term, his widow explained why he was not invited to the funeral:

President Donald Trump was not allowed to attend the ceremony because McCain wanted her husband’s ceremony to be left “with dignity,” according to reporting from TIME. She added that she wanted the demeanor of the funeral to be more respectful to honor her husband as well as her family.

In response, Trump complain[ed] he didn’t get a ‘thank you’ for McCain’s funeral and had to be pressured into leaving the flag lowered for the traditional three days.

Which raises another interesting twist to history: A number of stories — rated by Snopes to be true — have focused on the fact that US flags will still be at half-mast when Trump is sworn in. As The New Republic couldn’t resist pointing out: America Will Officially Be in Mourning on Trump’s Inauguration Day:

Given Trump’s general obsession with appearances, such as the crowd size at his first inauguration, he may well feel emasculated by a half-mast American flag at his second one.

When Trump first heard about Carter’s death, in his initial statement (on Truth Social) he naturally put himself in the picture:

Those of us who have been fortunate to have served as President understand this is a very exclusive club, and only we can relate to the enormous responsibility of leading the Greatest Nation in History.

So I suppose there are really two questions here: Will he manage to imitate a civilized human being at the funeral, and will he really restrain himself from ordering the flags back to full staff once he is sworn in?

When thinking about this question, keep in mind another Trump action from just this morning: TRUMP LIES Despicably About the Tragedy in New Orleans, the Suspect, the Crime Rate, and Himself. Trump immediately seized on the tragedy in New Orleans to blame it on immigrants, even though the killer was born and raised in Texas (which is still part of the United States), which was too much even for the toadies at Fox to swallow: Fox News Fact-Checks Trump on New Orleans Terror Suspect's Citizenship, Says He Was Born in the US.

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