Jimmy Carter had little use for the presidents club but formed a friendship for the ages with Ford

WASHINGTON (AP) — Jimmy Carter and the man he beat for president, Gerald Ford, got so tight after office that their friendship became a kind of buddy movie, complete with road trips that were never long enough because they had so much to gab about.

Carter did not get along nearly so well with the other living presidents. The outsider president was an outlier after his presidency, too.

Nevertheless, past and present occupants of the office will attend Carter's state funeral this week in what could be the largest gathering of the presidents club since five attended Washington services for George H.W. Bush in December 2018.

As a member of that elite, informal club, Carter was uniquely positioned to do important work for his successors, whether Democrat or Republican. He achieved significant results at times, thanks to his public stature as a peacemaker, humanitarian and champion of democracy and his deep relationships with foreign leaders, troublemakers included.

But with Carter, you never knew when he’d go rogue. This was a man so self-confident, he described himself as “probably superior” to the other ex-presidents who were still knocking about. Ornery about taking orders, he could be invaluable to the man in office, exasperating, or both at once.

The others often bonded over “what an annoying cuss Carter could be,” Nancy Gibbs and Michael Duffy wrote in their book “The Presidents Club.”

“Carter was the driven, self-righteous, impatient perfectionist who united the other club members around what seemed like an eternal question: was Jimmy Carter worth the trouble?”

He was, in the mind of Randall Balmer, a Dartmouth College historian of religion and Carter’s rise to the presidency. Balmer points to the violence averted in the last hours before a U.S. invasion of Haiti in 1994, when Carter, to the benefit of Democratic President Bill Clinton and countless lives saved, brokered a deal with Haiti’s military coup leader to step aside and restore democracy.

“Any time you can avoid military conflict you score that as a win,” Balmer said.

Four years earlier, for the benefit of Republican President George H.W. Bush and the lives at stake in the region, Carter secured peace in Nicaragua at the brink of bloodshed when he persuaded the leftist leader Daniel Ortega to accept the electoral defeat that had so shocked the Sandinistas.

John Danforth, former Republican senator from Missouri, joined Carter on missions to lay the groundwork for the 1990 Nicaragua election and then monitor it. In the first, the Carter entourage came upon Ortega's motorcade on a dusty road through the town of Rivas.

The two men retired to the backyard of the nearest house for an impromptu negotiation over the government trucks Carter wanted Ortega to send around the country to deliver election material.

“Often when we envision former presidents, the picture is distant, even stuffy: men in dark suits and neckties captured in formal poses as though engaged in deep thoughts,” Danforth wrote in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in February 2023. "My picture of Carter is quite the contrary. He is in a back yard in Rivas. A crowing rooster is at his feet. An earnest expression is on his face. He’s not talking statecraft; he’s talking trucks.”

Yet he could infuriate those in power. Years after the U.S.-led Gulf War rolled back Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait, it emerged that Carter had lobbied U.N. Security Council members and foreign leaders to reject the elder Bush’s request to authorize the use of force.

After being mostly sidelined by the man who defeated him in 1980, Ronald Reagan, Carter was given several missions by Bush until the Gulf War episode, after which he was cut off, Gibbs and Duffy write.

His relationship with Clinton was limited and uneasy, bookended by Clinton’s reluctance to call on a figure who symbolized humiliating election defeat for Democrats and by Carter’s disapproval of Clinton’s behavior outside his marriage.

But after Clinton won the White House in 1992, he sent Carter to North Korea to take the measure of dictator Kim Il Sung. Clinton aides were livid when Carter went beyond his brief, engaging in an unauthorized negotiation with Kim and, what’s more, talking about it on TV.

But then, Carter was always a step apart from the rest. He was also one to wag a finger at the political establishment, if not to pulverize it like Donald Trump did.

In January 2009, President George W. Bush invited other members of the presidents club to the White House for lunch and Oval Office photos. Bush, his father, Clinton and President-elect Barack Obama are seen clustered in front of the Resolute Desk. Carter is conspicuously off to the side — outlying.

The images spoke volumes about Carter’s place in the club, Balmer said. “Jimmy Carter didn’t fit in with a lot of people. He was really an introvert, not somebody who warms up easily.”

If politics makes strange bedfellows, though, post-politics makes even stranger ones. The embedded hostilities of Democrat-versus-Republican can melt in the presidents club as former rivals become unlikely mates.

Except with Trump. Regardless of party, the club members disdained Trump in his first term, and he had no use for them.

When Carter turned 100 in October, Trump marked the occasion by declaring that Joe Biden is so bad a president that Carter must be “the happiest man because Carter is considered a brilliant president by comparison.”

Trump was more sober in response to Carter's death, saying “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.”

Democrat Lyndon Johnson leaned frequently on Republican predecessor Dwight Eisenhower, telling him “You’re the best chief of staff I’ve got.” On the night of John Kennedy’s assassination, LBJ sought Ike’s advice on what to say to Congress, adding: “I need you more than ever now.”

Reagan once pulled Clinton aside to tell him the military salute he was executing during the campaign was too lame for the presidency. He taught him how to make it snappy. Clinton in turn cherished his long and frequent phone calls with Richard Nixon, confiding in the disgraced but savvy Republican on foreign policy problems of the era.

Clinton also became close to the Republican he vanquished in 1992, joining the elder Bush in Maine for golf, zippy boat rides and nights by the sea.

More consequentially, the younger Bush asked his dad and Clinton to lead a fundraising mission for countries devastated by the 2004 tsunami, giving rise to a bipartisan pairing that pitched in on more endeavors, like Hurricane Katrina relief. “I just loved him,” Clinton said upon Bush’s death in 2018.

So, too, Obama and the younger Bush have teamed up on occasion and Bush enjoys an especially good-natured relationship with Michelle Obama.

But the Jimmy-Jerry friendship was one for the ages.

Carter took it as a point of pride when two historians, speaking separately at a commemoration of the 200th birthday of the White House, said his friendship with Ford was the most intensely personal between any two presidents in history.

Carter said it began in 1981, when the two were sent by Reagan to represent the U.S. at the funeral of Anwar Sadat, the assassinated Egyptian leader. Nixon was on the trip, too, somewhat awkwardly. The other two took to each other, commiserating over how tough it could be to raise money for a presidential library when you’ve been booted out of office.

They were both Navy men, had three sons, a strong religious faith that Ford was quieter about than Carter, and independent spouses who bonded as well. “The four of us learned to love each other,” Carter said.

Carter and Ford spoke regularly, teamed up as co-leaders on dozens of projects and decided together which events they’d attend and skip in tandem.

“When we were traveling somewhere in an automobile or airplane, we hated to reach our destination, because we enjoyed the private times that we had together,” Carter said.

That’s what he told mourners in January 2007, at a service for Ford the month after he died at age 93.

The Democrat and the Republican he so cherished had made a pact, one hard to imagine in this time of partisan poison: Whoever died first would be eulogized by the other.

FILE - Former Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter share a light moment as they take a break from their Symposium on New Weapons Technologies and Soviet-American Relations at the University of Michigan to talk with reporters on Nov. 14, 1984, in Ann Arbor, Mich. (AP Photo/Rob Kozloff, File)

FILE - Former presidents Gerald Ford, Richard Nixon and Jimmy Carter, and former first lady Rosalynn Carter stand atop the ramp to an Air Force jet on Oct. 8, 1981, at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., just before their departure to attend the funeral in Cairo for slain Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. (AP Photo/John Duricka, File)

FILE - Former President George W. Bush, left, sits with President Barack Obama, right, and first lady Michelle Obama, center, at the dedication ceremony for the Smithsonian Museum of African American History and Culture on the National Mall in Washington on Sept. 24, 2016. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File)

FILE - U.S. President Bill Clinton, flanked by former Presidents George Bush, left, and Jimmy Carter, walks through the Colonnades of the White House, Washington, on Sept. 13, 1993. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee, File)

FILE - This photo provided by the North Korean government shows former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, left, and then North Korean President Kim Il Sung looking at the West Sea Barrage in Nampo, North Korea, on June 17, 1994. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP, File)

FILE - Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, right, shakes hands with Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega during elections in Managua, Feb. 24, 1990. In background in between Carter and Ortega is former first lady Rosalyn Carter. (AP Photo, File)

FILE - President George Bush, former President Ronald Reagan, former President Jimmy Carter, former President Gerald Ford and former President Richard Nixon attend the dedication ceremony for the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif, on Nov. 5, 1991. (AP Photo/Marcy Nighswander, File)

FILE - From left, President Donald Trump, first lady Melania Trump, former President Barack Obama, former first lady Michelle Obama, former President Bill Clinton, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former President Jimmy Carter and former first lady Rosalynn Carter participate in the State Funeral for former President George H.W. Bush at the National Cathedral on Dec. 5, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, Pool, File)

FILE - Former President Jimmy Carter, left, speaks during a Rose Garden ceremony to unveil the report by the National Commission on Federal Election, July 31, 2001, at the White House in Washington as President Bush looks on at right. (AP Photo/Ron Edmonds, File)

FILE - President Jimmy Carter is seen with former President Gerald Ford aboard Air Force 1 between Cairo and Spain on Oct. 10, 1981. (AP Photo/Dirck Halstead, File)

FILE — From left, former President George H.W. Bush, President-elect Barack Obama, President George W. Bush, former President Bill Clinton and former President Jimmy Carter meet in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, on Jan. 7, 2009. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Nearly 44 years after Jimmy Carter left the nation's capital in humbling defeat, the 39th president returned to Washington on Tuesday for state funeral rites that featured the kind of bipartisan praise and ceremonial pomp the Georgia Democrat rarely enjoyed at his political peak.

The military honor guards, a procession down Pennsylvania Avenue and a service in the Capitol Rotunda continued public commemorations for Carter, who died Dec. 29 at age 100. Services will continue through his state funeral Thursday at the National Cathedral, before Carter returns to his hometown of Plains, Georgia, for burial beside his late wife, former first lady Rosalynn Carter, who died in 2023.

As the sun set outside the Capitol, Vice President Kamala Harris, House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune — none of whom were old enough to vote in Carter's two national campaigns — celebrated his faith, military service and devotion to service more than anything he did in politics.

“To be sure, his presidency was not without its challenges and international crises,” said Harris, for whom Carter cast his final presidential ballot this fall. But she described him nonetheless as “that all-too-rare example of a gifted man who also walks with humility, modesty and grace.”

As a presidential candidate in 1976, Harris noted, he slept in the homes of his supporters to “share a meal with them at their table and listen to what was on their minds.”

Thune, the newly elected majority leader, ticked through Carter's legacy beyond the White House, including his hands-on contributions to rebuilding homes through Habitat For Humanity. “First and foremost a faithful servant of his creator, and his fellow man,” said Thune, a South Dakota Republican.

Johnson, a Louisiana Republican who was just four years old when Carter was inaugurated, recalled his fellow Southerner as a man “willing to roll up his own sleeves to get the work done.”

The former president will lie in state Tuesday night and again Wednesday before his remains are moved to National Cathedral. There, President Joe Biden will eulogize Carter.

Carter’s remains, which had been lying in repose at the Carter Presidential Center since Saturday, left the Atlanta campus Tuesday morning, accompanied by his children and extended family. Special Air Mission 39 departed Dobbins Air Reserve Base north of Atlanta and arrived at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland before Carter was brought to Washington.

Carter never traveled as president on the iconic blue and white Boeing 747 variant that is known as Air Force One when the sitting president is on board. It first flew as Air Force One in 1990 with President George H.W. Bush.

Many of the rituals this week are typical of what follows a president’s death — the Air Force rides to and from the Beltway, the horse-drawn caisson in the capital, the Lincoln catafalque in the rotunda.

There also is symbolism unique to Carter. As he was carried from his presidential center, a military band played the hymns “Amazing Grace” and “Blessed Assurance” for the outspoken Baptist evangelical, who called himself a born-again Christian.

Another hymn, “Just as I am, without one plea,” played as Carter was transferred from the hearse at the U.S. Navy Memorial to the horse-drawn caisson for the rest of his trip to the Capitol. The location was a nod to Carter’s place as the lone U.S. Naval Academy graduate to become commander in chief.

The path also was meant as a mirror to Carter famously getting out of his secure limousine during the 1977 inaugural parade and walking up Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House with his family.

A bipartisan delegation of members of Congress were led into the Capitol Rotunda by Sens. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, both Democrats who represent Carter’s home state. Harris, members of President Joe Biden's cabinet and U.S. Supreme Court justices John Roberts, Brett Kavanaugh and Elena Kagan were present.

The U.S. Army Band Brass Quintet played as people awaited the casket. The room fell silent as three knocks on the rotunda door marked Carter's arrival. The casket was placed in the middle of the room on the catafalque built in 1865 to hold assassinated President Abraham Lincoln's casket in the same place.

The U.S. Naval Academy Glee Club performed “My Country, 'Tis of Thee” before congressional leaders and Harris, accompanied by her husband Doug Emhoff, placed wreaths beside the casket. Members of Carter's family, including some of his grandchildren and great-grandchildren, wiped tears.

The pomp carried some irony for a politician who went from his family peanut warehouse to the Governor’s Mansion and eventually the White House. Carter won the presidency as the smiling Southerner and technocratic engineer who promised to change the ways of Washington — and eschewed many of its unwritten rules when he got there.

From 1977 to 1981, Carter was Washington's highest-ranking resident. But he never mastered it.

“He could be prickly and a not very appealing personality” in a town that thrives on relationships, said biographer Jonathan Alter, describing a president who struggled with schmoozing lawmakers and reporters.

Carter often flouted the kind of ceremonial trappings that have been on display following his death.

While in office he wanted to keep the Marine Band from playing “Hail to the Chief,” thinking it elevated the president too much, but his advisers persuaded him to accept it as part of the job. It has played multiple times since Carter's presidential funeral ceremonies began.

He also never used his full name, James Earl Carter Jr., even when taking the oath of office. His full name was printed on memorial cards given to mourners in Atlanta and was used again in the rotunda.

Carter once addressed the nation from the White House residence wearing a cardigan, now on display at his museum and library. His remains now rest in a wooden casket that was carried and guarded by military pallbearers in impeccable dress uniforms, similar to the attire worn by the Naval Academy midshipmen who saluted him on Pennsylvania Avenue.

Still, Carter was not met entirely with adulation Tuesday. President-elect Donald Trump, who mocked Carter during the 2024 campaign, criticized him again during a news conference in Florida for ceding control of the Panama Canal.

Pressed on whether criticism of Carter was appropriate during the solemn national rites, Trump responded, “I liked him as a man. I disagreed with his policies. He thought giving away the Panama Canal was a good thing.”

“I didn’t want to bring up the Panama Canal because of Jimmy Carter’s death,” Trump added, though he had first mentioned it unprompted.

Trump plans to attend Carter's Washington funeral.

This story has been updated to correct the spelling of the last name of Sen. Jon Ossoff, not Osoff.

Cooper reported from Phoenix.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune delivers a eulogy for former President Jimmy Carter as he lies in state during a ceremony in the Capitol, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025, in Washington. Carter died Dec. 29 at the age of 100. (Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post via AP, Pool)

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson delivers a eulogy for former President Jimmy Carter as he lies in state during a ceremony in the Capitol, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025, in Washington. Carter died Dec. 29 at the age of 100. (Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post via AP, Pool)

Second gentleman Doug Emhoff, from left, and Vice President Kamala Harris place a wreath at the flag-draped casket of former President Jimmy Carter during a ceremony where Carter lies in state at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. Carter died Dec. 29 at the age of 100. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, Pool)

The flag-draped casket of former President Jimmy Carter lies in state at the rotunda of the U.S. Capitol Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025, in Washington. (Andrew Harnik/Pool via AP)

Members of the Carter family pay their respects as the flag-draped casket of former President Jimmy Carter lies in state at the U.S. Capitol, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025, in Washington. Carter died Dec. 29 at the age of 100. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, Pool)

The casket containing the remains of former President Jimmy Carter moves on Constitution Avenue toward the U.S. Capitol on a horse-drawn caisson in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. Carter died Dec. 29, 2024, at the age of 100. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, Pool)

The flag-draped casket of former President Jimmy Carter is transferred to a horse-drawn caisson at the U.S. Navy Memorial before traveling on to the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025, where Carter will lie in state. Carter died Dec. 29 at the age of 100. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, Pool)

Carter family and others, walk off a military plane carrying the casket of former President Jimmy Carter, as they arrive at Joint Base Andrews, Md., Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)

The Carter family walks off a military plane carrying the casket of former President Jimmy Carter, as they arrive at Joint Base Andrews, Md., Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)

Special Air Mission 39, carrying the flag-draped casket of former President Jimmy Carter, departs Dobbins Air Reserve Base in Marietta, Ga., Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025, en route to Washington. Carter died Dec. 29 at the age of 100. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, Pool)

The hearse carrying flag-draped casket of former President Jimmy Carter arrives at Dobbins Air Reserve Base in Marietta, Ga., Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. Carter died Dec. 29 at the age of 100. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, Pool)

The hearse carrying the flag-draped casket of former President Jimmy Carter arrives at Dobbins Air Reserve Base in Marietta, Ga., Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. Carter died Dec. 29 at the age of 100. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, Pool)

Amy Carter and Jeff Carter watch as the flag-draped casket of former President Jimmy Carter is placed on Special Air Mission 39 at Dobbins Air Reserve Base in Marietta, Ga., Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. Carter died Dec. 29 at the age of 100. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, Pool)

Family members walk to board the plane after the flag-draped casket of former President Jimmy Carter was placed on Special Air Mission 39 at Dobbins Air Reserve Base in Marietta, Ga., Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. Carter died Dec. 29 at the age of 100. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, Pool)

A joint forces military body bearer team moves flag-draped casket of former President Jimmy Carter to Special Air Mission 39 at Dobbins Air Reserve Base in Marietta, Ga., Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. Carter died Dec. 29 at the age of 100. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, Pool)

The motorcade carrying the casket of former President Jimmy Carter departs the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum in Atlanta, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. Carter died Dec. 29 at the age of 100. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, Pool)

The casket of former President Jimmy Carter is carried by a joint services body bearer team from the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum in Atlanta, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. Carter died Dec. 29 at the age of 100. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, Pool)

The hearse carrying the casket of former President Jimmy Carter departs the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum in Atlanta, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. Carter died Dec. 29 at the age of 100. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, Pool)

The casket of former President Jimmy Carter is placed into the hearse by a joint services body bearer team from the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum in Atlanta, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. Carter died Dec. 29 at the age of 100. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, Pool)

People engage in a snowball fight as U.S. flags, along the base of the Washington Monument, fly at half-staff in memorial to former President Jimmy Carter, who died at the age of 100, in Washington, Monday, Jan. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Mourners view the casket of former President Jimmy Carter as he lies in repose at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum in Atlanta, Sunday, Jan. 5, 2025. Carter died Dec. 29 at the age of 100. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, Pool)

Annabeth Mellon becomes emotional while viewing the casket of former President Jimmy Carter as he lies in repose at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum in Atlanta, Monday, Jan. 6, 2025. Carter died Dec. 29 at the age of 100. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, Pool)

Mourners hold remembrance cards as they view the casket of former President Jimmy Carter as he lies in repose at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum in Atlanta, Monday, Jan. 6, 2025. Carter died Dec. 29 at the age of 100. (Erik S. Lesser/Pool via AP)

A mourner carries a picture of former President Jimmy Carter as she stands near his casket as he lies in repose at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum in Atlanta, Monday, Jan. 6, 2025. Carter died Dec. 29 at the age of 100. (Joe Raedle/Pool via AP)

The joint services military honor guard stand around the casket of former President Jimmy Carter as he lies in repose at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum in Atlanta, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. Carter died Dec. 29 at the age of 100. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, Pool)

Mourners view the changing of guard of the joint services military honor guard as the casket of former President Jimmy Carter as he lies in repose at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum in Atlanta, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. Carter died Dec. 29 at the age of 100. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, Pool)