On the occasion of former President Jimmy Carter‘s 100th birthday, Donald Trump took a jibe at the 39th president’s tenure, marking the moment with a critical comparison during a campaign stop in Waunakee, Wisconsin, according to USA Today.
Despite the milestone, Trump claimed that current US President Joe Biden has now surpassed Carter as the “worst president” in American history. “Jimmy Carter is the happiest man because Jimmy Carter is considered a brilliant president by comparison,” Trump said.
Carter’s birthday was officially recognised in his home state of Georgia, where Republican governor Brian Kemp, with whom Trump has had a tense relationship over the handling of the 2020 election, declared October 1 as “Jimmy Carter Day.” Kemp, who has endorsed Trump in the upcoming election, praised Carter in a statement as “a person of strong conviction and a dedicated believer in community service.”
“Of his many achievements, he is perhaps best known as a loving husband, caring humanitarian, and a valued Sunday School teacher,” Kemp added.
This wasn’t the first time Trump made the remark. At a rally in Wildwood, New Jersey, in May, he mistakenly referred to the former Georgia governor as “Jimmy Connors,” the tennis star of the 1970s, joking that Connors, too, “was happy.”
Carter, who has been receiving hospice care at his home in Plains, Georgia, since February 2023, spent his birthday in the quiet company of family. The Carter family has, however, expressed similarly negative views of Trump in the past.
In a tribute to the former president, the Carter Center shared videos on Tuesday of Carter’s successors, including Presidents Biden, Barack Obama, George W Bush, and Bill Clinton, reflecting on his legacy—though there was no mention of Trump among those paying their respects.