Is there anything he can do to not have a big state funeral?
He’ll be dead. He won’t be able to do anything.
Probably not, since a state funeral is a government function, and serves a purpose in helping the country to grieve and move on. However according to this article (.pdf), the president is consulted (obviously prior to his death) regarding the specifics of the event. I can see him requesting certain singers or poets to appear.
I believe Eisenhower had said he wanted a small funeral service. But when he died, he was given a major state funeral.
He could ask to be buried in Kenya, land of his birth. 
. That would cut down the crowd. Or be cremated with his birth certificate and his ashes spread over Mecca.
I don’t know if there is a definitive answer. I would think that the wishes of a former and now dead president could be ignored. The wishes of a live former first lady would be harder to ignore. It would be a PR nightmare for whatever current president if the old first lady is in front of every available camera complaining about what is going on.
Maybe we ought to draw a distinction between all the hoopla in Washington DC and the actual internment service at the gravesite, usually at their own Presidential museum.
I think the ship sails on not wanting the Washington DC funeral stuff the moment you’re elected, but there is precedent for having a relatively small graveside service (Gerald Ford’s was so).
If I recall correctly, Nixon didn’t receive a state funeral did he? I vaguely remember at the time that that was at his request.
Would it depend on whether he dies (which God forbid) while still President? I can’t imagine if he said in his will “a small, private ceremony” and he dies twenty years from now that his wishes would be overruled. Certainly there could be a national day of mourning and/or other non-funeral events, but what are they going to do - elbow Michelle out of the way and start sending telegrams to the UN?
Certainly he would be eligible for a state funeral, but I can’t see any laws saying “once you are elected President your last wishes are irrelevant”.
Regards,
Shodan
I’ve heard that the Military District of Washington is the group charged with planning and carrying out presidential funerals, and that they meet with each president and presidential spouse to determine his/her wishes. Somewhat morbid thought, though; how soon do they have this meeting? Do they wait until he leaves office or do they talk to him just after the inauguration?
Nitpick: “interment.”
I think the late President’s wishes will be largely respected. I have never read of one, Eisenhower included, who got a bigger funeral than he said he wanted.
I think people are more generally modest on their own behalf. A former president might not think he needs a huge send-off but his widow might disagree. So she could be prone to being persuaded that a large service is what her husband is entitled to even though he asked for a small service.
Well if they’re planning the funeral he’d get if he dies as the sitting President, they’d better have the meeting at least a *wee *bit before he leaves office.
It was still a pretty big event that ended up being immortalized as the final scene of an Oliver Stone biopic.
I can’t imagine they wait very long. Not only is anyone’s death hard to predict, but something like a Presidential funeral isn’t set up overnight. They’d want plenty of time to draw up plans and prepare in advance for as much as possible.
It’s gotta be an awkward conversation, though, “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mr President. Now that you’ve been inaugurated we need to think about what you want done if you’re assassinated.”
Well, if you stop and think about it, it’s no different than anyone else who pre-plans their funeral.
I wonder if there’s an official “government embalmer”, or funeral director. Do they contact a funeral home? Imagine being the funeral director who gets THAT job!
I’d imagine there is a single standard pre-planned Presidential Funeral. All that gets updated for each new incoming President is which clergy will officiate and maybe some of the small ancillary details. The rest of the more civic ceremonial parts, and certainly all the logistics and security are almost unchanged from President to President.
Like any other plan, it gets updated every few years as contractors change, technology moves along, etc. But that’s not tied to the election cycle.
Likewise there’s a funeral plan in the can for the VP, major cabinet members, head of the Senate, etc.
Not too different from how every major news organization has a few hundred ready-to-go obituaries for whoever they consider to be notable-enough persons.
An article in The New York Times on the planning for Reagan’s funeral said “that officials from the Military District of Washington, who oversee presidential funerals, asked the Reagans to begin planning the rites in 1989, the year Mr. Reagan left office, as is the custom.”
So no one has an awkward conversation with a sitting president about what he would want done in the event of an assassination.