Trump Makes Sure To Stroke His Own Ego In Message About Jimmy Carter's Death

Jimmy Carter, the 39th president, died at the age of 100. Carter was under hospice care for more than a year before his passing, and many politicians are publicly sharing their thoughts about the president's death. Barack Obama, for one, shared a thoughtful message about Carter's life and legacy on Medium. Donald Trump, however, took a different route.

In a move that should surprise no one, Trump was able to make his message about Carter into one about him. On Truth Social, Trump wrote: "I just heard of the news about the passing of President Jimmy Carter. 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." He could have easily removed any reference to "us" and being part of "a very exclusive club" and still honored Carter's passing, but Trump chose not to do that.

After a post complaining about the debt ceiling, he followed up with another Truth Social post about Carter. In it, he made sure to point out that he "strongly disagreed with [Carter] philosophically and politically." While this is certainly true, and Carter did vote against Trump in the 2024 election, it doesn't really seem like it was something that had to be said. Trump did end both posts with more expected messages of condolence and support for Carter's family. However, his words and how he inserted himself into the situation didn't go unnoticed on social media.

Some people on X (formerly known as Twitter) took issue with Donald Trump's post about Jimmy Carter's death, centered around his second sentence where he talks about being a part of an "exclusive club." One person posted: "Well, somewhat more decent of a statement than I was expecting ... but the Presidency is not a club, let alone exclusive. But of course, he feels he must redefine everything so it makes himself more important ..."

Another wrote, "That selfish, self-righteous, self-absorbed, disgusting second sentence. The Office of the President is not a membership to Mar-a-Lago. And to push himself front and center, yet again, is hurtful to those who genuinely mourn President Carter."

There were also people who thought that there was no way Trump wrote the posts about Carter, which other than the second sentence, were fairly thoughtful. We have seen a bit of how Trump writes some of his social media posts, and it does involve him getting ideas from those around him, so we could see it being a mix of his thoughts (the "exclusive club" part) and some from his aides (the more empathetic part about prayers for the Carter family).

There were those who were surprised that Donald Trump's take on Jimmy Carter wasn't even more aggressive. One person wrote: "I am surprised Trump wasn't nasty about him. He usually is in such situations." Some think that it will only be a matter of time before Trump shares something more insulting about Carter, and that Trump can't be happy with all the attention that Carter is getting.

Traditionally, former presidents attend the state funerals of other presidents, though there are some online wondering if Trump would even be invited considering the bad blood between them. Carter wasn't a fan of Trump as president; however, he did attend Trump's inauguration in 2017.

Others are relieved that Carter died while Joe Biden was president so Trump wouldn't have any control over the state funeral arrangements. And some are impressed with the timing; with Carter's death on December 29, 2024, the flags will still be at half mast in his honor for Trump's inauguration events in January 2025 — they are lowered for 30 days after a president's death. We have a feeling that might be the topic of a future Truth Social post from Trump.