‘It’s inappropriate I guess’: Trump slams beloved former president prior to his funeral
Donald Trump has ramped up two of his political habits over the last months: insulting heads of state and demanding land that isn’t his.
After the death of former president Jimmy Carter—a Noble Prize winning humanitarian and famously devoted husband—Trump has doubled down on his insults to the former president’s legacy, and has taken particular umbrage towards Carter’s decision to return the Panama Canal to Panamanians.
In the lead-up to Carter’s funeral, Trump has repeatedly bemoaned the decision, erroneously claiming that Carter sold the Panama Canal “for a dollar,” and called it a “disgrace” and a “terrible thing to do.” The Torrijos-Carter Treaties—negotiated between Carter and the Panamanian government over the decision—were enacted over twenty year transition process that dealt with sums far higher than one dollar. The U.S. also negotiated the Treaty of Permanent Neutrality, which stipulates that the Canal must remain open to international shipping, and maintains the right to defend the Canal from a military attack.
Trump’s insults toward Carter’s political legacy go hand in hand with his recently stated intent to take back the Panama Canal from the nation’s government, despite the president of Panama’s declaration that “ever square meter” the Canal belongs to Panama, and that a deal return to to U.S. control is “not negotiable.” Trump is reportedly weighing the decision to use military force to take back the Canal, and is also considering using the military to take the island of Greenland away from Denmark.
The Panama Canal isn’t the only cause that Trump has used to insult Carter. After the announcement that federally flown American flags would be lowered to half mast for a thirty day mourning period honoring the fallen president, Trump used the opportunity to take a shot at his political opponents. In a post on Truth Social, Trump claimed that Democrats were “giddy” that the half-mast period is set to coincide with his Inauguration, and raged at the fact that the American flag may not fly at its full height during the ceremony. “Nobody wants to see this” he said of the mourning ritual, which has been in practice since the days of Eisenhower.
“Nobody wants to talk about the Panama Canal now, it’s inappropriate I guess, because it’s a bad part of the Carter legacy,” said Trump at a recent press conference. He added that while Carter was “a very fine person,” the decision to turn over the Canal to Panama was a “big mistake.”
While Carter was still living, he and Trump feuded on multiple occasions. After Trump emerged the victor in the 2016 election, Carter declared that the results should be investigated on grounds of Russian interference and said that the findings could prove that Trump “didn’t actually win.” Trump later shot back at Carter while at the G20 Summit in 2019, calling him a “terrible president.”
Trump has also used Carter to critique the Biden administration as a whole, and draws frequent comparisons between the deceased former president and the current. Trump once called Biden “the worst” president in U.S. history, and said that he made Carter look “brilliant” by comparison—and he said this on Carter’s 100th birthday! The president-elect criticisms toward the dead have been leveled at the living as well. In the wake of former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s resignation from his position as the nation’s leader, Trump repeated his months old jab of calling Canada the “51st State.” He has also mocked Trudeau personally, calling him Canada’s “governor.” When it comes to respect for both politics and people, Trump always fails to show it .
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