CNN
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Former President Jimmy Carter’s post-presidential activism extended to his relationships with his seven successors in the White House.
Some of them relied on his experience, advice, and diplomatic skills. Carter, who died Sunday at the age of 100, also used his platform to speak out against some presidents when he felt it was warranted.
Let’s take a look at his relationship with his successors.
President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden visited with Carter and former first lady Rosalynn Carter at their home in Plains, Georgia, shortly after the 2021 inauguration.
The April 2021 visit was the only face-to-face meeting until Rosalynn Carter’s memorial service in 2023. The Carters did not attend Biden’s inauguration due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“It was nice to meet President Carter. He reminded me that I was the first person outside of Georgia to support him, and we sat and talked about old times,” Biden said. He spoke to reporters after the visit.
Additionally, “Rosalyn was great too. We had a great time. … They’re old friends.”
According to the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library, Biden was actually the first U.S. senator to endorse Carter in the 1976 presidential election.
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 celebrated Carter’s 100th birthday in a video released in October 2024, calling him a “moral force for our country and the world” and a “beloved friend.”
Carter had numerous contacts with Donald Trump and his administration during his presidency.
In 2018, in response to President Trump’s announcement of new sanctions against North Korea, Carter received a briefing on North Korea and stated that he was prepared to travel to North Korea on behalf of the Trump administration. In 2019, Mr. Carter wrote a letter and spoke with Mr. Trump by phone about U.S.-China trade relations.
The White House called the 2019 call “a very good phone call,” and Trump said he “always liked President Carter,” but later that year President Carter announced that he was entering the 2016 election. Relations soured after he called for and suggested a full investigation into Russian interference. “It would show that Trump didn’t actually win the election,” Carter said later, referring to Trump’s decision to withhold funding from the World Health Organization amid the coronavirus pandemic. issued a stern warning.
Meanwhile, President Trump called Carter a “good person” and a “terrible president” at a press conference at the G20 summit in June 2019.
Days before Carter’s death, President-elect Trump lambasted two treaties Carter had negotiated regarding the Panama Canal during his term.
Carter candidly said in 2014 that then-President Barack Obama didn’t ask him for advice.
Asked by NBC News if President Obama would seek advice, Carter said, “Unfortunately, the answer is no.” President Obama doesn’t do that. But presidents have called on me and the Carter Center to take action. President Clinton did that, and Presidents George W. Bush and H.W. Bush and even President Ronald Reagan called on us to step into sensitive areas. When the United States did not engage with an unsavory person, they asked me, a civilian, to do so. ”
Carter cited his organization’s “strong and public stance on equal treatment of Palestinians and Israelis” as a reason for distancing himself from Obama, adding, “This is a sensitive area that the president doesn’t want to get involved in.” I think so,” he said.
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 its negative impact on countries around the world,” Carter told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in a phone interview.
He continued, “What is most disturbing to me is the blatant reversal of fundamental American values expressed by successive administrations, including George H.W. Bush, Ronald Reagan, and Richard Nixon. It was,” he said.
At the time, the White House press secretary called Carter “irrelevant” and “sad,” according to the New York Times.
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.
“In January 2005, a peace treaty was signed between North and South Sudan, ending 20 years of war,” Carter said. “The responsibility lies with George W. Bush.”
According to the Clinton Library, as president, Bill Clinton accepted Jimmy 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 unofficial agreement with North Korea to end the standoff before allowing Clinton administration officials to review the agreement. “Using President Carter proved complicated.” 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.
Mr. Clinton awarded Mr. Carter the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor, in 1999.
