First off I am sure Jimmy Carter like any man his age has made his funeral plans. Maybe in Washington, maybe in Plains, maybe in Atlanta. But still it will be a Big Deal.
Further, as a decent Christian man you just know he will not specifically exclude Donald Trump from the festivities. As sitting president he will be expected to make the main eulogy. President Trump will not be able to refuse, unless he fakes a heart attack or something.
Also, you have to assume either or both Joe Biden and Barack Obama will speak as leaders of the Democratic Party, They would have to be made of stone to not make President Trump sweat in silence on his pew.
Writing either of those speeches would be a finely balanced task. In any case, it will be must-see TV.
Under normal circumstances the sitting president would be asked to make an eulogy (not necessarily the ‘main’ eulogy, but at least to speak). However, in this case…no one is going to ask Trump to speak at any funeral because the man can barely string words together into a coherent sentence even when they are projected in front of him, and Trump would almost certainly take the opportunity to badmouth his ‘opponents’ including the deceased given that Carter has (in his own subtle way) expressed his contempt for Trump. Notice how leaders of countries that are traditionally allied with the United States have stopped inviting Trump to visit or made state visits to the US because all it accomplishes is embarrassment for everyone involved?
In these uncertain times, hope can be hard to come by. But here’s hoping ol’ Jimmy outlives The Don and renders your entire premise moot.
But seriously(er), Jimmy has been Not The President for 91 years in total, and he has only paused his quest to become a better person a couple times since then to defeat fucking cancer. For a man like him, President of the United States is just something he did once, a long time ago. I could see his service being held privately in Plains, but even a simple event like that reeks of ostentatious self-agrandizement in Carter Land. The Ex Presidents may organize their own thing, because it’s an opportunity for them to grandstand and virtue-signal, but a humble guy like Jimmy? No way he’d participate in that. You don’t say “goodbye” to a fellow like him, you pick up his hammer and continue his work.
Is there any particular reason to believe Jimmy Carter is at death’s door? I know he’s 96 and was hospitalized for falls last year, but AFAICT he hasn’t contracted Covid 19 or anything. The OP is pretty creepy, IMHO.
Death came take Carter, but Jimmy invited him in for hot apple cider and a light lunch with Rosalynn, and Death was so humbled he left without his reap.
I genuinely don’t get why you say Trump “will not be able to refuse”. Seems to me that he of course could, if he happens to feel like it, refuse; if there’s any common ground between folks who lavish all kinds of praise on Trump and folks who say he’s the worst president ever, I figured they could agree on this: he’ll gladly refuse to do stuff that many would expect from a normal president.
I read someplace that soon after the inauguration someone from the Military District of Washington meets with the new president to discuss funeral plans. I’ll bet they update those from time to time, even for retired presidents.
Another awkward one would be if the UK queen passes while Trump is still president. Presumably he will be expected to attend, but without making it about him.
There’s an unusual consensus among the people who don’t want Trump to speak because they dislike him and don’t want to give him an opportunity to talk about himself and the people who don’t want Trump to speak because they have some respect for Trump and don’t want to give him an opportunity to embarrass himself in public.
Jimmy Carters funereal would be awkward because every idiot would be coming out of the woodwork to tell us how he was “The Greatest Liberal President since Roosevelt” and “The No War President” despite the fact his actions literally lead to the deaths of more people than Trump, probably only dwarfed by George W Bush due to Carters love of sending money to prop up 3rd World Anti-Commie Dictators.
