President-elect Donald Trump responded to the news of former President Jimmy Carter’s passing on Sunday with a heartfelt statement honoring his life.
“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 on social media after news of the 100-year-old’s passing broke Sunday afternoon.
“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,” he said. “For that, we all owe him a debt of gratitude.”
Trump said that while he “strongly disagreed with him philosophically and politically, I also realized that he truly loved and respected our Country, and all it stands for.”
“He worked hard to make America a better place, and for that I give him my highest respect,” Trump said. “He was also very consequential, far more than most Presidents, after he left the Oval Office. Warmest condolences from Melania and I to his wonderful family!”
Carter’s presidency was marred by domestic turmoil and skyrocketing inflation at home, and foreign crises abroad. His single turn ended in 1980, when he lost to Ronald Reagan in a historic 489-electoral vote landslide.
National Review’s Phil Klein noted that Carter, a self-described “citizen of the world,” spent the rest of his life out of office “meddling in U.S. foreign policy and working against the United States and its allies in a manner that could fairly be described as treasonous.”
“His obsessive hatred of Israel, and pompous belief that only he could forge Middle East peace, led him to befriend terrorists and lash out at American Jews who criticized him,” Klein wrote.
