President-elect Donald Trump announced Tuesday that he plans to attend the funeral of former President Jimmy Carter.
When asked about it as he entered a New Year’s Eve party at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, Trump simply said, “I’ll be there.” He was then asked if he’d spoken to Carter’s family, but replied, “I’d rather not say.”
Carter, who passed away Sunday at the age of 100, will be honored with funeral services in Georgia and Washington from January 4 to January 9.
Though Trump was a vocal critic of Carter during the election campaign, often using the 1970s inflation crisis to draw comparisons between President Biden and Carter, he took a more respectful tone following Carter’s death. On his social media site, Trump wrote that the country “owed him a 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. “He worked hard to make America a better place, and for that I give him my highest respect.”
