President-elect Donald Trump confirmed that he will attend the funeral for former President Jimmy Carter at the Washington National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. on January 9.
“I do. I’ll be there. We were invited,” Trump said while standing alongside his wife, Melania, during a New Year's Eve party at his Mar-a-Lago estate via the New York Post.
The former and soon-to-be president responded "I'd rather not say" when asked if he'd spoken to any members of Carter's family. Trump previously said the United States owed Carter "a debt of gratitude" in a post shared on his Truth Social account.
“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,” Trump wrote. “The challenges Jimmy faced as President came at a pivotal time for our country and he did everything in his power to improve the lives of all Americans. For that, we all owe him a debt of gratitude.”
President Joe Biden, who is expected to give a eulogy during Carter's funeral, declared January 9 to be a national day of mourning on Monday (December 30).
"We should all do well to be a bit more like Jimmy Carter," Biden said via ABC News.
Carter, the 39th president in American history, lived longer than any other and was the only Georgian elected to the White House. The former president's death came one year after his wife, Rosalynn, died in November 2023.
Carter defeated incumbent President Gerald Ford in the 1976 election, but served one term after being defeated by then-California Gov. Ronald Reagan in the 1980 election. Carter's lone term was marked by the Iran hostage crisis, the Three Mile Island accident, the Nicaraguan Revolution and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, as well as the escalation of the Cold War, ending détente by imposing a grain embargo, which led to a multinational boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics.
Carter's legacy grew after his presidency through his and his late wife's work at the Carter Center in Atlanta, which focused on promoting and expanding human rights, as well as his philanthropic causes, most notably Habitat for Humanity, receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.
“People will be celebrating Jimmy Carter for hundreds of years. His reputation is only going to grow,” Rice University history professor Douglas Brinkley wrote in his book entitled 'The Unfinished Presidency of Jimmy Carter' via ABC News.