What Were Trump’s Thoughts at Carter’s Funeral?

Since I’m of an age that happens to be within mortality table’s expected expiration date, when I attend a funeral service, inevitably my mind wanders into what-will-my-own-funeral-service-be-like territory. 

Is the service I’m attending a good model for my own when that day comes? If not, what would I  have arranged differently? Who will speak? What will they say? How will my survivors compress decades of my life and experiences into a brief eulogy? Does it even matter? Well, yes it does. Most of us would prefer a final send-off that accentuates the positive.

These thoughts came to mind while I was watching President Jimmy Carter’s service on TV. Not visualizing my own service but what President Biden and former presidents Clinton, Bush, Jr, and Trump were thinking about theirs’.  All are 78, coincidentally having been born in the same year, 1946. All one day are likely to be eulogized at the Washington National Cathedral, at a service televised live to the world. Just like this one. And all were sitting shoulder to shoulder, a few feet from Carter’s casket.  (I’m giving President Barack Obama a pass here, since he’s only 63). 

At some point during Carter’s service, it’s more than likely that Biden, Clinton, Bush and Trump individually did what I do—have thoughts of their own mortality and the events and words that will ensue. Who will speak? What will they say? How will they be remembered?

Eulogizing Carter Through Values and Humility

This isn’t macabre, it’s just human nature, even more so for major public figures whose lives are spent under an intense public spotlight. 

Biden and others spoke of Carter’s unstinting devotion to civil rights and human equality, his dedication to public service while in office and during decades afterward. Carter’s vice president, Walter Mondale, who died in 2021, left behind a eulogy read by Mondale’s son. It summed up their four years in the White House this way: “We told the truth, obeyed the law and kept the peace.”

Love, respect, humility—it was a strong thread among all who spoke. And not just Democrats. Former Republican President George W. Bush in statement said Carter “set an example of service that will inspire Americans for generations.” President Gerald Ford, who Carter defeated to win the presidency later developed a strong personal bond with him. Ford’s remembrance, read at the service by Ford’s son was that “Carter’s legacy of peace and compassion will remain unique as it is timeless.”

Will the ‘Carter Effect’ Influence Trump’s Legacy?

Purposefully or not, many of the personal values speakers attributed to Carter seemed like veiled critiques of Trump. Trump could hardly have missed their meaning, sensitive as he is to criticism. Moreover, he had to have considered the insinuations deeply unfair. Trump’s sense of victimhood is well documented.

But the majestic experience of sitting in the front pew with others who resided at the White House, all of whom eventually will be similarly honored in this grand cathedral, listening to words of praise for Carter, may have struck another chord in Trump as well. It’s called “legacy.” 

With such an outsized ego, his name on hotels the world over and imprinted on countless merchandise, Trump clearly would love to be loved. Loved and respected with passion at least as deeply felt as those attached to Carter. 

Will the Carter experience have an effect on Trump’s behavior, his words, his actions during his next four years? Unlikely. But for Trump as with others who seek and bask in the spotlight, “legacy” is a powerful motivator, and has been in human history since even before the pharaohs built their pyramids. Will we see a “Carter effect” as Trump considers his own place in history? An effect that engenders a bit more love, a bit more compassion? Enough to write a eulogy Trump would find fitting for the ages? 

We’re about to find out.

Comments? Criticism? Contact Joe Rothstein at jrothstein@rothstein.net