亚特兰大-如同唐纳德·特朗普在重返白宫的竞选活动中，他经常回溯40多年前的七届政府，通过将乔·拜登总统比作99岁的老人来贬低他吉米·卡特.
最近，特朗普在纽约州对封口费的刑事审判开始后的第一次竞选活动中，对第46任总统进行了抨击，称第39任总统对拜登的政绩自私地感到满意。这位总统最近丧偶，是一名临终关怀病人，于1981年离任。
“拜登是我们国家历史上最糟糕的总统，比吉米·卡特差远了，”特朗普在2024年竞选期间一直使用的一句俏皮话的变体，包括前第一夫人罗丝琳·卡特临终时。“吉米·卡特很高兴，”特朗普继续谈到两位民主党人，“因为与拜登相比，他有一个辉煌的总统任期。”
特朗普等共和党人讽刺卡特曾经很常见。许多民主党人，包括比尔·克林顿总统和巴拉克·奥巴马总统，也在经济动荡、能源短缺和长期美国人质危机导致卡特在1980年大选中失败后多年保持距离。然而，随着时间的推移和对卡特作为政治领袖、诺贝尔奖得主和全球人道主义者的遗产的重新思考，负面影响逐渐减弱。
这使得一些观察人士，特别是民主党人，质疑特朗普试图让拜登背负一个体弱多病的人几十年的包袱。去年11月，拜登默默领导了对他77岁妻子的哀悼，结束了他的公共生活。
“这只是一个非常过时的参考资料，”民调专家扎克·麦卡里说，他在阿拉巴马州的公司为拜登工作。“这类似于民主党人对杰拉尔德·福特或赫伯特·胡佛或威廉·麦金利发起攻击。这对选民来说没有任何意义，除了特朗普对这个大多数美国人认为对他的国家和世界贡献良多的人物进行了卑鄙的攻击。”
特朗普的忠实拥护者坚持认为，在总统政治的混乱现实中，即使是一位近百岁的老人也是公平的游戏。
“我可能是在特朗普总统之前说的:乔·拜登比吉米·卡特更糟糕，”佐治亚州居民黛比·杜利说。她是奥巴马第一个任期内的早期全国茶党组织者，自2016年竞选早期以来一直是特朗普的支持者。杜利说，拜登执政期间的通货膨胀证明了这种类比的合理性:“我已经老了，还记得卡特总统执政期间的天然气管道。”
当然，任何比较都涉及选择性解释，特朗普让第三任总统参加竞选的决定给这三个人都带来了麻烦——也许对特朗普来说有些讽刺，他和卡特一样，在一届任期后被选民拒绝。
特朗普的竞选团队没有回应对他的比较发表评论的请求;拜登的竞选团队对他们不屑一顾。
发言人塞斯·舒斯特说:“唐纳德·特朗普正在努力对拜登总统进行连贯的攻击。”
卡特仍呆在佐治亚州普莱恩斯的家中，他身边的人说他一直关注着竞选活动。拜登无疑是卡特离开白宫以来在白宫最亲密的朋友。拜登是来自特拉华州的第一任议员，当时他成为第一位支持卡特竞选失败的美国参议员。他入主白宫后，拜登和第一夫人吉尔·拜登拜访了普莱恩斯的卡特一家。去年，在罗丝琳·卡特的葬礼前，他们私下见到了悲伤的卡特。
与卡特一样，拜登在美国人担心通货膨胀的时候寻求连任。但是今天的经济与卡特面临的经济不一样。
在美国和其他国家政府刺激支出的推动下，疫情大流行后的反弹被认为是全球通胀的原因。作为回应，美联储提高了利率。
但目前有效联邦基金利率为5.33%，而在1980年之前的一个关键时期，基准利率高于17%选举。30年期抵押贷款的利率大约是卡特政府巅峰时期的一半;失业率不到卡特时期峰值的一半。美国平均每加仑汽油价格本月超过3.60美元，高于特朗普执政时期3美元的峰值。在卡特执政的最后一年，金价达到了4.5美元(经通胀调整后)。
卡特和特朗普实际上有共同之处。他们是现代历史上赢得总统职位的最明显的华盛顿局外人，每个人都受到选民对当权派不满的推动。
卡特是一位鲜为人知的佐治亚州州长和花生种植者，他利用了越南战争和水门事件的余波。特朗普是民粹主义商人和电视真人秀明星，他承诺“让美国再次伟大”。两人都无视意识形态标签，表现出愿意与独裁者和孤立国家(如朝鲜)对话，尽管他们对原因给出了不同的解释。
卡特警告他的政党不要低估特朗普的吸引力，卡特夫妇参加了特朗普2017年的就职典礼。然而，吉米·卡特却公开批评特朗普爱撒谎。在卡特暗示俄罗斯的宣传在2016年帮助特朗普而不是民主党人希拉里·克林顿当选后，特朗普开始侮辱卡特是一个失败者。
与卡特不同，特朗普从不接受失败。他错误地声称2020年大选被窃取，然后在2021年1月6日国会召开会议认证拜登获胜时，在袭击美国国会大厦的暴徒中，支持者重复了被揭穿的选举理论。川普在拜登就职当天早上离开华盛顿，成为自1869年安德鲁·约翰逊以来首位缺席继任者就职典礼的总统。
卡特向共和党人罗纳德·里根认输，参加了他的就职典礼，然后返回佐治亚州。在那里，他和罗丝琳·卡特于1982年建立了卡特中心。他们花了几十年时间倡导民主，调解国际冲突，促进发展中国家的公共卫生。他们为低收入人群建造了人类家园。吉米·卡特于2002年获得诺贝尔和平奖。
许多历史学家对卡特总统任期的判断已经软化。
他被认为解除了对运输行业的大部分管制，使美国人更容易乘坐飞机旅行，并创建了能源部以精简和协调国家的能源研究。他参与了埃及和以色列之间的戴维营和平协议的谈判。他使联邦司法和行政部门多元化。他任命保罗·沃克尔为美联储主席，沃克尔和里根一起为20世纪80年代的经济增长赢得了荣誉。卡特是第一位对全球气温上升表示担忧的总统。正是卡特和他的外交团队通过谈判释放了德黑兰的美国人质，尽管他们直到卡特任期结束后几分钟才获释。
卡特第10个十年的传记、纪录片和新闻报道都重新评估了这一纪录。
到2015年，昆尼皮亚克大学(Quinnipiac University)的一项民意调查发现，40%的注册选民认为卡特是从卡特到乔治·w·布什历任总统中卸任以来工作最好的。当盖洛普去年要求选民对卡特的总统任期进行评价时，57%的人赞成，36%的人不赞成。(特朗普当时的支持率为46%，反对率为54%，这是盖洛普首次为他进行追溯性调查。)
“长期以来，人们普遍认为卡特是一个值得敬佩的人——认为他是一个好人和正派的人，”田纳西大学教授安布尔·罗斯纳(Amber Roessner)说。他研究集体公共记忆，撰写了大量关于卡特的文章。她补充说，最近关于卡特担任总统的结论表明，“我们应该把卡特的总统任期视为一面镜子，思考重新评估我们如何衡量任何政府的成败。”
罗斯纳说，这将如何影响拜登与特朗普的复赛，“还有待观察。”
无论如何，不管第45任总统说什么，第39任总统和第46任总统之间的关系依然存在。当卡特的国葬到来时，特朗普预计将与卡特其他在世的继任者一起被邀请。但致悼词的将是拜登。
Donald Trump is running against Joe Biden. But he keeps bringing up Jimmy Carter
ATLANTA --AsDonald Trumpcampaigns for a return to the White House, he often reaches back more than 40 years and seven administrations to belittle President Joe Biden by comparing him to 99-year-oldJimmy Carter.
Most recently, Trump used his first campaign stop after the start of his criminal hush money trial in New York to needle the 46th president by saying the 39th president, a recently widowed hospice patient who left office in 1981, was selfishly pleased with Biden's record.
“Biden is the worst president in the history of our country, worse than Jimmy Carter by a long shot,” Trump said in a variation of a quip he has used throughout the 2024 campaign, including as former first lady Rosalynn Carter was on her deathbed. “Jimmy Carter is happy,” Trump continued about the two Democrats, “because he had a brilliant presidency compared to Biden.”
It was once common for Republicans like Trump to lampoon Carter. Many Democrats, including Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, kept their distance for years, too, after a roiled economy, energy shortages and an extended American hostage crisis led to Carter’s landslide defeat in 1980. The negative vibes waned, though, with the passage of time and reconsideration of Carter’s legacy as a political leader, Nobel laureate and global humanitarian.
That leaves some observers, Democrats especially, questioning Trump’s attempts to saddle Biden with the decades-old baggage of a frail man who closed his public life last November by silently leading the mourning for his wife of 77 years.
“It’s just a very dated reference,” said pollster Zac McCrary, whose Alabama-based firm has worked for Biden. “It’s akin to a Democrat launching an attack on Gerald Ford or Herbert Hoover or William McKinley. It doesn’t signify anything to voters except Trump taking a cheap shot at a figure that most Americans at this point believe has given a lot to his country and to the world.”
Trump loyalists insist that even a near-centenarian is fair game in the rough-and-tumble reality of presidential politics.
“I was saying it probably before President Trump: Joe Biden’s worse than Jimmy Carter,” said Georgia resident Debbie Dooley, an early national tea party organizer during Obama’s first term and a Trump supporter since early in his 2016 campaign. Dooley said inflation under Biden justifies the parallel: “I’m old enough to remember the gas lines under President Carter.”
Any comparison, of course, involves selective interpretation, and Trump’s decision to bring a third president into the campaign carries complications for all three –- and perhaps some irony for Trump, who, like Carter, was rejected by voters after one term.
Trump's campaign did not respond to a request for comment about his comparisons; Biden's campaign was dismissive of them.
“Donald Trump is flailing and struggling to land coherent attacks on President Biden,” spokesman Seth Schuster said.
Carter remains at home in Plains, Georgia, where those close to him say he has kept up with the campaign. Biden is unquestionably the closest friend Carter has had in the White House since he left it. Biden was a first-term lawmaker from Delaware when he became the first U.S. senator to endorse Carter’s underdog campaign. After he won the White House, Biden and first ladyJill Bidenvisited the Carters in Plains. They saw a grieving Carter privately before Rosalynn Carter’s funeral in Atlanta last year.
Like Carter, Biden is seeking reelection at a time when Americans are worried about inflation. But today’s economy is not the same as the one Carter faced.
The post-pandemic rebound, fueled by stimulus spending from the U.S. and other governments, has been blamed for global inflation. The Federal Reserve has raised interest rates in response.
But the effective federal funds rate is 5.33% right now, while the benchmark was above 17% for a key period before the 1980election. Rates for a 30-year mortgage are about half what they were at the peak of Carter’s administration; unemployment is less than half the Carter peak. The average per-gallon gas price in the U.S., topping $3.60 this month, is higher than the $3 peak under Trump. It reached $4.50 (adjusted for inflation) during Carter’s last year in office.
Carter and Trump actually share common ground. They are the clearest Washington outsiders in modern history to win the presidency, each fueled by voter discontent with the establishment.
A little-known Georgia governor and peanut farmer, Carter leveraged fallout from Vietnam and the Watergate scandal. Trump was the populist businessman and reality TV star who pledged to “Make America Great Again.” Both men defy ideological labels, standing out for their willingness to talk to dictators and isolated nations such as North Korea, even if they offered differing explanations for why.
Carter cautioned his party about underestimating Trump’s appeal, and the Carters attended Trump's 2017 inauguration. Jimmy Carter, however, openly criticized Trump’s penchant for lies. After Carter suggested Russian propaganda helped elect Trump over Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016, Trump began to insult Carter as a failure.
Unlike Carter, Trump never accepted defeat. He falsely claimed the 2020 election was stolen, then promoted debunked theories about the election that were repeated by supporters in the mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, as Congress convened to certify Biden's victory. Trump left Washington the morning Biden took office, becoming the first president since Andrew Johnson in 1869 to skip his successor’s inauguration.
Carter conceded to Republican Ronald Reagan, attended his inauguration, then returned to Georgia. There, he and Rosalynn Carter established The Carter Center in 1982. They spent decades advocating for democracy, mediating international conflict and advancing public health in the developing world. They built houses for low-income people with Habitat for Humanity. Jimmy Carter was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.
Many historians' judgment of Carter's presidency has softened.
He is credited with deregulating much of the transportation industry, making air travel far more accessible to Americans, and creating the Department of Energy to streamline and coordinate the nation's energy research. He negotiated the Camp David peace deal between Egypt and Israel. He diversified the federal judiciary and executive branch. He appointed the Federal Reserve chairman, Paul Volcker, who, along with Reagan, would get credit for the economic growth of the 1980s. Carter was the first president to raise concerns about rising global temperatures. And it was Carter, along with his diplomatic team, who negotiated the release of American hostages in Tehran, though they were not freed until minutes after Carter's term expired.
Biographies, documentaries and news coverage across Carter's 10th decade have reassessed that record.
By 2015, a Quinnipiac University poll found 40% of registered voters viewed Carter as having done the best work since leaving office among presidents from Carter through George W. Bush. When Gallup asked voters last year to rate Carter’s handling of his presidency, 57% approved and 36% disapproved. (Trump measured 46% approval and 54% disapproval at the time, the first retroactive measure Gallup had conducted for him.)
“There has long been a general consensus of admiration for Carter as a person — that sentiment that he was a good and decent man,” said Amber Roessner, a University of Tennessee professor who studies collective public memory and has written extensively on Carter. The more recent conclusions about Carter as a president, she added, suggest “we should consider Carter's presidency as a lens to think about reevaluating about how we gauge the failure or success of any administration.”
How that plays into Biden's rematch with Trump, Roessner said, “remains to be seen.”
Regardless, the ties between the 39th and 46th presidents endure, whatever the 45th president might say. When the time comes for Carter's state funeral, Trump is expected to be invited alongside Carter's other living successors. But it will be Biden who delivers the eulogy.
