As the race for the White House heats up, former President Donald Trump is taking shots at the current Commander in Chief, Joe Biden, with an unexpected twist—invoking the name of another Democrat, Jimmy Carter. Trump, campaigning for a presidential comeback, likened Biden's performance to that of Carter, saying, “Biden is the worst president in the history of our country, worse than Jimmy Carter by a long shot,” as reported by WABE. Trump's callbacks to the Carter era, over forty years past, have some questioning the relevancy of the comparison.
Pollster Zac McCrary deemed Trump's strategy out-of-date, suggesting, "It's akin to a Democrat launching an attack on Gerald Ford or Herbert Hoover or William McKinley. It doesn’t signify anything to voters except Trump taking a cheap shot at a figure that most Americans at this point believe has given a lot to his country and to the world,” according to WABE. Despite the criticism, some Trump loyalists, like early national tea party organizer Debbie Dooley, align with Trump's view, citing the parallel of inflation rates between the Biden and Carter administrations as justification.
While Trump's comments draw a parallel between the economic conditions of Carter's tenure and today's inflation woes, the broad strokes of comparison miss the delicate nuances of two very different times. As WABE notes, although both presidents faced economic challenges and inflation, the circumstances and their policy responses vary widely. The effective federal funds rate today stands at 5.33%, a stark contrast to the 17% in the period before the 1980 election.
Despite the potshots, the bond between Biden and Carter runs deep, marked by a longstanding friendship since Biden's endorsement of Carter's presidential bid as a freshman senator. Trump's campaign has remained silent on his comparison-targeting approach; Biden's side, through spokesman Seth Schuster, dismissed the attacks, stating, “Donald Trump is flailing and struggling to land coherent attacks on President Biden," as reported by WABE.
Amidst the tetchy campaign rhetoric, Carter's legacy has seen a renaissance in public perception, thanks partially to reassessments of his presidential record and notable humanitarian efforts post-presidency, which earned him the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002. With a Quinnipiac University poll citing him as the post-presidential leader with the most significant impact from his predecessors through George W. Bush and Gallup showing a solid approval rating for Carter's presidential tenure, it appears the reevaluation might indicate more than a simple footnote in history, but rather a lens through which success and failure in the Oval Office could be gauged more humanely.
