Jimmy Carter ‘died a happy man’ knowing Biden was worse: Trump mocks former president

US President Donald Trump on Thursday (Apr 17) called former president Joe Biden’s administration the worst in American history, adding that former president Jimmy Carter “died a happy man” knowing that someone was worse than him.

“And then you had like the last administration (Joe Biden's), the only thing they were good at was cheating in elections,” Trump told reporters during an Oval Office meeting with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. “That‘s about all they could do. They couldn‘t do anything. They were useless. They were incompetent.”

He added, “Worst administration in the history of our country. Worse than Jimmy Carter. Jimmy Carter died a happy man. You know why? Because he wasn‘t the worst. President Joe Biden was.”

Carter, who was the 39th president of the United States, recently died on December 29, 2024, at the age of 100. Earlier his death, Trump had also mocked Carter’s administration, calling it the “worst” in history, reported The Independent.

“I think he’s terrible, but I can't complain because we had the most successful administration economically in the history of our country,” he said during the press briefing. “I think we‘re going to do even better this time, because you will see that the numbers that we‘re taking in are astronomical. We’re taking in tremendous amounts of money with the tariffs.”

During his 2024 election campaign, Trump often compared the two Democratic leaders, saying Biden, who was “the worst”, made Carter look “brilliant”.

However, after Carter’s death, Trump offered gratitude to Carter and said, “The challenges Jimmy faced as President came at a pivotal time for our country and he did everything in his power to improve the lives of all Americans. For that, we all owe him a debt of gratitude,” as quoted by The Independent.

He added that Carter was a “good man” who was “very consequential, far more than most presidents, after he left the Oval Office.” Trump also attended Carter’s funeral.

During the press briefing, Trump also talked about the sweeping tariffs imposed by him, saying that they were necessary as the United States was “treated very unfairly on trade”. He added that “countries are having a hard time getting used to the fact that they can’t do that to us anymore because we have a real president.”