President-elect Donald Trump says he will attend the state funeral of former president Jimmy Carter. He confirmed his plans as he arrived at a New Year’s Eve party at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. “I’ll be there,” Trump told reporters. “We were invited.”
Pressed on whether he had spoken with members of the Carter family, Trump declined to say. “I’d rather not say,” he said before heading into the celebration. His wife Melania joined him, along with vice-president-elect JD Vance and Elon Musk. Carter, the 39th president, died Sunday at his home in Plains, Georgia, at the age of 100.
Key Points
- Carter’s state funeral is set for Jan. 9 at Washington National Cathedral. President Joe Biden is to deliver the eulogy.
- Biden has declared Jan. 9 a national day of mourning for Jimmy Carter. Federal offices will close that day.
- In written tributes, Trump praised Carter as “a truly good man,” despite years of mutual public criticism.
Tributes to Jimmy Carter from a longtime critic
On the campaign trail, Trump had routinely used Carter as a foil. He argued that inflation under Biden made Carter look good by comparison. For his part, Carter once suggested Russian interference had placed Trump in office illegitimately. Trump never forgot that remark. Yet within hours of Carter’s death, Trump issued two statements of unmistakable warmth. He wrote that Americans owe Carter “a debt of gratitude” for his efforts at “a pivotal time for our country.” Later he added that, despite their disagreements, “he truly loved and respected our Country.”
The funeral will assemble the small club of living presidents in one room. Biden, Trump, Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton are all expected at the cathedral. Trump will join them eleven days before his own inauguration returns him to the White House.
Background: the state funeral Jimmy Carter planned himself
Carter died more than a year after entering hospice care in February 2023. That announcement prompted an early wave of tributes and a public conversation about end-of-life care. He was the longest-lived president in American history. With his wife Rosalynn, who died in November 2023, he formed half of the longest presidential marriage on record. His post-presidency remade expectations of what former presidents do. He built houses with Habitat for Humanity, monitored elections and nearly eradicated Guinea worm disease through the Carter Center.
The rites follow the choreography Carter approved years in advance. Observances begin Jan. 4 in Georgia. They include a stop at his boyhood farm and a funeral at Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains. Carter taught Sunday school there for decades. The Washington service follows, and he will be buried beside Rosalynn at their home.
What happens next
True to his word, Trump attended the Jan. 9 service for Jimmy Carter at the National Cathedral. He sat with the other former presidents as Biden delivered the eulogy. Carter’s motorcade travelled from Georgia through ceremonies that closed the Carter Center’s observances. He was laid to rest in Plains the same day. That final itinerary briefly placed America’s fractious modern politics inside a shared ritual of farewell.
The arrangements will run straight through the presidential transition. Carter’s remains were to lie in repose at the Carter Center in Atlanta. He built his post-presidential life there. They then travelled to Washington to lie in state in the Capitol Rotunda. The public could pay respects before the cathedral service on Jan. 9. That places the funeral eleven days before Inauguration Day, in the same city and nearly the same ceremonial geography. Trump’s team sustained unaccustomed restraint through the week. People close to the incoming president said there was never internal debate about attending. Carter had planned his own funeral in detail many years in advance. He had effectively written the gathering’s logic himself. Every living president would sit in one room, so the country could watch a rival honoured.
Sources: Carter Center funeral arrangements; statements by President-elect Donald Trump, Dec. 31, 2024; White House proclamation declaring Jan. 9, 2025 a national day of mourning; Washington National Cathedral.
