During a campaign speech on Oct. 1 at a manufacturing facility in Waunakee, Wis., Donald Trump taunted former President Jimmy Carter on his 100th birthday. Trump, 78, mentioned the 39th U.S. president while criticizing President Joe Biden.
After calling Biden the worst president in U.S. history, Trump stated: “Jimmy Carter is the happiest man because, by comparison, he’s now considered a brilliant president,” according to reports from USA Today.
Jimmy Carter, a Democrat, served a single term as president from 1977 to 1981, but lost his reelection in 1980 to Republican Ronald Reagan.
While Trump made such comments about Carter during a political rally, other Republican leaders put partisanship aside to honor his legacy on his 100th birthday. Carter reached this milestone 19 months after entering hospice care, in February 2023, making him the longest-living U.S. president.
Carter himself has openly criticized Trump in the past. In a 2018 interview with CBS News, he accused the former president of being “very careless with the truth” and that “he’s a disaster when it comes to human rights and treating people equally”.
Jason Carter, the former president’s grandson, recently shared with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that his 99-year-old grandfather hopes to live long enough to cast his vote in the upcoming 2024 presidential election.
“I’m only trying to make it to vote for Kamala Harris,” Carter said to his family.
Early voting in Georgia, where Carter resides, begins Oct. 15 for the Nov. 5 election, and absentee ballots are mailed up to 29 days before the election. More specifically, Georgia has no laws preventing a ballot from being counted if a voter is absent between the early voting period and Election Day; therefore, the former president’s explicit wish could essentially be fulfilled.
