Trump says he is planning to attend Jimmy Carter’s funeral
PALM BEACH, Fla. — president-elect Donald Trump said tuesday that he plans to attend the funeral of former President Jimmy Carter.
I asked about it when he walked into his New Year’s Eve party Mar-a-Lago Club in Florida, Trump responded: “I will be there.” When asked whether he had spoken to members of Carter’s family, Trump said he would prefer not to say.
Funeral services will be held in honor of Carter, who died Sunday at the age of 100 be held in Georgia and Washington, starting on January 4 and ending on January 9.
Trump was one frequent and fierce critic of Carter on the campaign trail ahead of the November election, using the rising inflation rates of the 1970s to compare the president unfavorably Joe Biden to Carter and his administration.
But the president-elect spoke well of the former president in posts on his social media site after Carter’s death on Sunday, writing that the nation “owes him a great debt of gratitude.”
“While I strongly disagreed with him philosophically and politically, I also realized that he truly loved and respected our country and all it stands for,” Trump wrote of Carter. “He worked hard to make America a better place, and for that I give him my utmost respect.”
Wearing a tuxedo as he entered the festivities, Trump took a few minutes to ask reporters about a variety of topics. He was asked about the possibility of a ceasefire Israel’s war with Hamas in Gazabut just said, “We’ll see what happens.”
Regarding the hostages seized by Hamas more than a year ago, the president-elect added: “I’ll put it this way: They better get the hostages back soon.”
Trump also said he thought 2025 would be a “great year” and “we are going to do fantastically well as a country.”
“There is a whole light shining on the whole world, not just on our country. They’re a lot of happy people,” Trump said of the past few weeks.
Asked about his New Year’s resolutions, Trump said: “I just want everyone to be happy, healthy and well.”
Trump later took the stage to briefly address the crowd ringing in the new year at Mar-a-Lago, promising to “do a great job as your president.”
Biden, for his part, spent New Year’s Eve celebrating the wedding of his niece Missy Owens in Greenville, Delaware, followed by the reception in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania. Biden and first lady Jill Biden interrupted their traditional holiday trip to the U.S. Virgin Islands to attend the ceremony.
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Associated Press writer Darlene Superville in Greenville, Delaware, contributed.