After nearly two years in hospice care at his home in Plains, Jimmy Carter died on Dec. 29 at the age of 100. His family had said a few months ago that the nation’s 39th president was set on hanging on until he could cast his vote for Kamala Harris over Donald Trump. He achieved that last goal, albeit to no avail.
No doubt like many Americans, I had been wondering since the Nov. 5 general election how America could have gone from Carter to Trump in a mere half-century and, more importantly, what that metamorphosis says about us as a nation. How could we have gone from a president who campaigned on a pledge never to lie to the American people (and who, nearly as I can recall or determine with a bit of research, kept that promise) to one who, according to The Washington Post, made 30,573 “false or misleading” statements during his four-year presidency?
From a presidential candidate whose public acknowledgement that he had “committed adultery in my heart many times” nearly upended his campaign to one who actually did commit adultery and bragged that he could “grab [women] by the pussy” and paid no political price for it?
From a president who vowed to do all he could to eliminate nuclear weapons from the face of the planet to one who, by multiple accounts, repeatedly harried the nation’s military leaders about using them?
From a president who opened his inaugural address by thanking the man he had defeated “for all he has done to heal our land” to one who built his campaign on a false claim that his predecessor wasn’t even born in the United States?
If Carter did indeed cling to life long enough to cast his 2024 presidential ballot for Vice President Harris, it’s not a stretch to think he might have deliberately hung on just a little longer to make a final statement on the state of our politics—and to make a dramatic exit. Few who knew Carter will have difficulty believing that. But whether by design or a twist of fate, Carter’s state funeral will serve as a prelude to Trump’s impending inauguration as the nation’s 47th president. American flags will still be flying at half-staff to honor Carter when Trump takes the oath of office on Jan. 20.
Carter left office a much-maligned figure. He had presided over an economy plagued by double-digit inflation and an Iranian hostage crisis that dominated national news for the final 444 days of his presidency. He was swept from office in a landslide loss to Ronald Reagan in 1980.
Carter, of course, is almost certainly better known to current generations for his post-presidential work. After losing to Reagan, Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter returned to their peanut farm in Sumter County and founded, instead of a traditional presidential library, the Carter Center in Atlanta. The work of that organization is credited with all but eradicating Guinea worm disease in Africa and helping farmers in African countries double and even triple their grain production. The Carter Center also provided election observation services in 26 countries around the world and focused on mental health issues, a passion of Mrs. Carter’s.
The Carters continued their support for Habitat for Humanity, including participating in homebuilding projects into their 90s, and Carter himself went back to teaching Sunday school at the Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 “for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development.”
Trump spent his four-year post-presidency dealing with criminal charges and civil lawsuits—and, of course, complaining that the 2020 election had been stolen from him. He also repeatedly proclaimed himself to be “the best” president in American history, with the possible exception of Abraham Lincoln.
Carter characterized his own presidency as “mediocre,” but history may be kinder to him. A 2024 survey of 154 presidential historians and experts ranked Carter 22nd out of 45. Trump ranked 45th.
Carter’s funeral and Trump’s inaugural will stand as bookends to one of the most turbulent half-centuries in American history, and I will leave it to historians, philosophers and others smarter than I to sort it out and explain the evolution from Carter to Trump. I can’t help but think, though, that tens of thousands of people will line the highways from Plains to Atlanta and then the streets in Washington, D.C., to bid Carter farewell, and that a comparable number will show up for Trump’s inaugural just a few days later and a short distance away. I also can’t help but think that the two crowds will be made up of very different groups of people.
Charles Hayslett is the author of the long-running troubleingodscountry.com blog. He is also the Scholar in Residence at the Center for Middle Georgia Studies at Middle Georgia State University. The views expressed in his columns are his own and are not necessarily those of the Center or the University.
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Jimmy Carter and Donald Trump Bookend a Half-Century
After nearly two years in hospice care at his home in Plains, Jimmy Carter died on Dec. 29 at the age of 100. His family had said a few months ago that the nation’s 39th president was set on hanging on until he could cast his vote for Kamala Harris over Donald Trump. He achieved that last goal, albeit to no avail.
No doubt like many Americans, I had been wondering since the Nov. 5 general election how America could have gone from Carter to Trump in a mere half-century and, more importantly, what that metamorphosis says about us as a nation. How could we have gone from a president who campaigned on a pledge never to lie to the American people (and who, nearly as I can recall or determine with a bit of research, kept that promise) to one who, according to The Washington Post, made 30,573 “false or misleading” statements during his four-year presidency?
From a presidential candidate whose public acknowledgement that he had “committed adultery in my heart many times” nearly upended his campaign to one who actually did commit adultery and bragged that he could “grab [women] by the pussy” and paid no political price for it?
From a president who vowed to do all he could to eliminate nuclear weapons from the face of the planet to one who, by multiple accounts, repeatedly harried the nation’s military leaders about using them?
From a president who opened his inaugural address by thanking the man he had defeated “for all he has done to heal our land” to one who built his campaign on a false claim that his predecessor wasn’t even born in the United States?
If Carter did indeed cling to life long enough to cast his 2024 presidential ballot for Vice President Harris, it’s not a stretch to think he might have deliberately hung on just a little longer to make a final statement on the state of our politics—and to make a dramatic exit. Few who knew Carter will have difficulty believing that. But whether by design or a twist of fate, Carter’s state funeral will serve as a prelude to Trump’s impending inauguration as the nation’s 47th president. American flags will still be flying at half-staff to honor Carter when Trump takes the oath of office on Jan. 20.
Carter left office a much-maligned figure. He had presided over an economy plagued by double-digit inflation and an Iranian hostage crisis that dominated national news for the final 444 days of his presidency. He was swept from office in a landslide loss to Ronald Reagan in 1980.
Carter, of course, is almost certainly better known to current generations for his post-presidential work. After losing to Reagan, Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter returned to their peanut farm in Sumter County and founded, instead of a traditional presidential library, the Carter Center in Atlanta. The work of that organization is credited with all but eradicating Guinea worm disease in Africa and helping farmers in African countries double and even triple their grain production. The Carter Center also provided election observation services in 26 countries around the world and focused on mental health issues, a passion of Mrs. Carter’s.
The Carters continued their support for Habitat for Humanity, including participating in homebuilding projects into their 90s, and Carter himself went back to teaching Sunday school at the Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 “for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development.”
Trump spent his four-year post-presidency dealing with criminal charges and civil lawsuits—and, of course, complaining that the 2020 election had been stolen from him. He also repeatedly proclaimed himself to be “the best” president in American history, with the possible exception of Abraham Lincoln.
Carter characterized his own presidency as “mediocre,” but history may be kinder to him. A 2024 survey of 154 presidential historians and experts ranked Carter 22nd out of 45. Trump ranked 45th.
Carter’s funeral and Trump’s inaugural will stand as bookends to one of the most turbulent half-centuries in American history, and I will leave it to historians, philosophers and others smarter than I to sort it out and explain the evolution from Carter to Trump. I can’t help but think, though, that tens of thousands of people will line the highways from Plains to Atlanta and then the streets in Washington, D.C., to bid Carter farewell, and that a comparable number will show up for Trump’s inaugural just a few days later and a short distance away. I also can’t help but think that the two crowds will be made up of very different groups of people.
Charles Hayslett is the author of the long-running troubleingodscountry.com blog. He is also the Scholar in Residence at the Center for Middle Georgia Studies at Middle Georgia State University. The views expressed in his columns are his own and are not necessarily those of the Center or the University.
Like what you just read? Support Flagpole by making a donation today. Every dollar you give helps fund our ongoing mission to provide Athens with quality, independent journalism.
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