washington
CNN
—
It is the world’s most exclusive fraternity, and on Thursday all five members of the so-called President’s Club will gather to honor each member.
Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Donald Trump and Joe Biden are scheduled to attend the state funeral of former President Jimmy Carter, who died on December 29th.
This is a very rare convocation and will be the first time all living club members will meet since George H.W. Bush’s funeral in December 2018.
Six years later, the group’s dynamics are sharply divided and will be closely watched at services at the Washington National Cathedral. Past presidents have strongly criticized President Trump, both directly and indirectly, as he makes a political comeback from defeat four years ago and is scheduled to return to the White House within two weeks.
“There hasn’t been a more controversial moment between these guys, certainly not in modern history since Kennedy,” said Kate Andersen Brower, author of Team of Five: The President’s Club in the Age of Trump. he says.
Bonded by the common experience of serving in what one of their predecessors, William Howard Taft, once described as “the loneliest place in the world,” the five living American presidents “always stood a little bit.” Gather at a man’s funeral,” figuratively speaking, apart from them,” Brower said.
The President’s Club is inherently complicated by past conflicts and future legacies. These complexities will only intensify as Mr. Trump returns to the White House, having railed against all of his fellow presidents. But regardless of party affiliation, its members — all men so far — are bound by the unique experience of serving in the Oval Office.
Jimmy Carter’s long life spanned 17 American presidents, from Calvin Coolidge to Biden. At 100 years old, he is the oldest living president and the longest-serving member of the President’s Club, but he charted his own course in the 43 years since leaving the White House.
In his death, Democrats and Republicans alike rushed to pay tribute to Mr. Carter’s legacy and the example he set over the decades in office.
But in life, Mr. Carter’s relationships with presidents were often more fraught, with Democrats like Mr. Clinton and Mr. Obama finding themselves too closely associated with a presidency that ended in defeat in one term. Fearful, they rarely sought guidance or publicly turned to Mr. Carter.
President Obama commemorated Carter’s life last week, highlighting a passage from Carter’s 2002 Nobel Peace Prize speech. We can choose to alleviate suffering. We can choose to work together for peace. ”
But when President Obama won the Nobel Prize in 2009, a surprise in his first year in office, he didn’t mention Carter at all. But he named John F. Kennedy.
In 2014, Mr. Carter candidly said that Mr. Obama had not contacted him while he was president. Asked by NBC News if President Obama would seek advice, Carter said, “Unfortunately, the answer is no.” President Obama is not like that. ”
He cited the Carter Center’s “strong and public position on equal treatment of Palestinians and Israelis” as a reason for distancing himself from President Obama, adding: “I think this was a sensitive area that the president didn’t want to get involved in.” he said.
Some presidents relied on Mr. Carter’s experience, advice, and diplomatic skills. But Mr. Carter did not hesitate to use his platform to speak out against his successors when he felt it was warranted, sometimes putting them in trouble.
Mr. Carter has been critical of the George W. Bush administration, publicly criticizing the president and his handling of the Iraq War in a 2007 interview.
“I think this administration is the worst in history in terms of the negative impact it has had on countries around the world,” Carter told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, citing President Bush’s “blatant demonstration of America’s fundamental values.” “A reversal”.
But Mr. Carter later praised Mr. Bush. At the opening ceremony of the George W. Bush Presidential Center in 2013, President Carter expressed “admiration” for the 43rd president, saying Bush kept his promises and acted to end 20 years of civil war in Sudan. I praised him for what he had done.
As president, Mr. Clinton accepted Mr. Carter’s offer to help ease tensions with North Korean leader Kim Il Sung.
In a prepared statement, the Clinton Library said, “President Carter announced on CNN an informal agreement with North Korea to end the standoff before allowing Clinton administration officials to review the agreement. “Using President Carter proved complicated.” the history of their relationship.
Mr. Carter later joined a diplomatic team with former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Colin Powell and Sen. Sam Nunn of Georgia to help “avoid armed conflict with Haitian military leaders,” according to the Clinton Library.
However, the two reportedly sparred when Carter “had breakfast with Clinton and appeared on CNN before a scheduled joint press conference,” according to the New York Times.
In 1999, Mr. Clinton awarded Mr. Carter the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor. But new tensions arose when Carter chose Bernie Sanders over Hillary Clinton in the 2016 Democratic presidential election.
Mr. Carter had been in contact with Mr. Trump and his administration numerous times during the president-elect’s first term.
In 2018, Carter said he received a briefing on North Korea following President Trump’s announcement of new sanctions against North Korea, and said he was willing to go to North Korea on behalf of the administration, but Trump rejected this offer. did not respond. In 2019, Mr. Carter wrote a letter to Mr. Trump and spoke with him on the phone about U.S.-China trade relations.
But later that year, Mr. Carter called for a full investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, suggesting that it would “show that Mr. Trump did not actually win the election.” This caused the relationship to deteriorate. Carter then issued a stern warning about President Trump’s decision to withhold funding from the World Health Organization during the coronavirus pandemic.
Meanwhile, President Trump called Carter a “good person” and a “terrible president” at a G20 summit press conference in June 2019.
In the days before and after Carter’s death, Trump blasted the two treaties Carter negotiated regarding the Panama Canal during his term.
At a press conference on Tuesday, President Trump referenced the Iran hostage crisis and said, “I think giving away the Panama Canal is why Jimmy Carter lost the election. That’s probably more than the hostages.” “It’s huge,” he criticized Carter. crisis.
President Trump acknowledged that it was “inappropriate” to discuss the Panama Canal in light of Carter’s death, adding: “This is a bad part of Carter’s legacy.” He was a nice guy. You know, he was a nice guy. I knew him a little bit and he was such a great guy, but it was a huge mistake. ”
Following Carter’s death, President Trump expressed his warm condolences in a public statement, calling former President Carter a “really good person” and a “very important person.” But days later, he complained on social media that flags on federal buildings would be lowered to half-staff during the inauguration. This is the standard month-long process of commemorating the death of a U.S. president.
A product of the Great Depression, Carter was the last president to routinely ask his fellow Americans to sacrifice. Whether it’s to beat the heat, wear sweaters and limit driving and gas consumption, Carter’s demands are politically out of place and a caricature of a president his predecessors would prefer to distance themselves from. produced.
In the midst of the Great Recession, as the George W. I didn’t like it. He was far more likely to be called out by Republicans in a more dismissive and derisive tone.
But Biden had no such reservations. He has long expressed his love and loyalty to Carter, paying an early visit to the former president’s home in Plains, Georgia, and proudly boasting that he was the first senator to support Carter’s unlikely presidential candidacy. I’m reminiscing.
Mr. Biden and then-Sen. “We are doing so,” he said. “We believe that person is Jimmy Carter,” Birch-Bye added in a joint letter at the time.
Biden’s inauguration four years ago was the first ceremony Carter was absent from since taking the oath of office in 1977. Although Carter’s health was failing, his relationship with Biden was the strongest of any of his successors.
Biden is scheduled to speak Thursday at a state funeral at the Washington National Cathedral. After decades of praise and send-offs, Biden will do something for the first time in the waning days of his presidency. It’s about praising my fellow members of the President’s Club.
Carter, along with his successors and predecessors, marched to the beat of his own. He developed relationships with several presidents, especially Gerald Ford, who he defeated in 1976, and extended an olive branch early and often, but he forged a real connection with Ronald Reagan, who he defeated in 1980. That never happened.
After leaving the White House, Carter and his wife, Rosalyn, had a difficult time overcoming the perceived and real disdain from Washington officials. Mr. Carter was the last man to follow the model of Harry Truman, who did not profit from paid speaking engagements or other initiatives after becoming president.
Chip Carter, the late president’s son, mentioned in passing the lingering feelings of his parents returning to Georgia and taking the lead in building their own legacy.
“The legacy that my father inherited from Georgia, the governor’s office, the presidency ended up being a little bit of a disaster because of our opposition and the way they put us down,” Chip Carter said Saturday in Atlanta. It became,” he said. And a little less so. ”
