Presꩲident-elect Donald Trump said Tuesday that he's plaಞnning to attend the funeral of former President Jimmy Carter.
Asked abouꦆt it as he walked into a New Year's Eve party at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, Trump responded, "I'll be there.” Pressed on whether he'd spoken to members of Carter's family, Trump saꦺid he'd rather not say.
Funeral services honouring Carter, who died Sunday at age 100, will 🍌be held in▨ Georgia and Washington, beginning January 4 and concluding January 9.
Trump was a frequent and fierce critic of Carter on the campaign trail ahead of November's election, using the rising inflation rates of the 1970s to unfavourably compare President Joe Biden to Carter and his administration.
But the pr▨esident-elect was gracious about the former president in posts on his social media site after Carter's death Sunday, writing that the nation “owed him a debt of grati🐬tude.”
“While I strongly disagreed with him philosophically and politi꧟cally, I also realised that he truly loved and respected our Country, and all it stands for,” Trump wrote of Carter. “He worked hard to make America a better place,💧 and for that I give him my highest respect.”
Wearing a tuxedo as he entered the festivities, Trump took a few minutes of questions from reporters on various topics. He was♋ asked about the possibility of a ceasefire in Israel's war with Hamas in Gaza, but said only,🐈 “We're going to see what happens."
The president-elect added of hos⛄tages seized more than a year ago by Hamas, “I'll put it this way: They better let the hostages come back soon."
Trump also said he thought 2025 w🌞ould be a “great year” and "we're going to do fantastically well as a country.”
“There's a whole light over the whole world, not just our country. They're a lot 𓂃of happy people,” Trump said of recent weeks.
▨Asked about his reꦬsolutions for the new year, Trump said, “I just want everybody to be happy, healthy and well.”
Trump later took the stage to briefl🐎y address the crowd ringing in the new year at Mar-a-Lago and promised “to do a great job as your president.”
Biden, for his part, spent New Year's Eve celebrating the wedding of his niece Missy Owens in Greenville, Delaware, followed by the reception in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania. Biden and first lady Jill Biden cut short their traditional hoꩲliday trip to the US Virgin Islands to attend the ceremony. (AP) GSP
