Former President Donald Trump argued Tuesday that Jimmy Carter had a “brilliant presidency” compared to successor Joe Biden, deriding his 2024 opponent as the “worst president” in American history.
“Biden is the worst president in the history of our country,” Trump, 77, told reporters outside a bodega in Harlem where clerk Jose Alba infamously stabbed an ex-con to death in self-defense two years ago.
“Worse than Jimmy Carter by a long shot,” the presumptive Republican nominee for president declared.
“Jimmy Carter’s happy because he’s had a brilliant presidency compared to Biden,” Trump added.
Carter, 99, served one term in the White House from 1977 to 1981.
Similar to Biden’s, Carter’s presidency was marked by rising prices, diplomatic tensions with Iran, Russian invasions and unrest in Afghanistan.
The annual average inflation rate under Carter was about 10% –— caused by high energy prices — which his administration attempted to rein in by increasing interest rates to over 17% leading to a recession.
Under Biden, while inflation soared to a 41-year high of 9.1% in 2022, it was lower than the 13.5% peak during Carter’s final year in office.
The former Georgia peanut farmer’s re-election bid was doomed after the 1979 Iran hostage crisis, when dissidents stormed the US Embassy in Tehran and held 52 Americans captive for 444 days — only releasing them after Carter lost to Republican Ronald Reagan in a landslide.
Carter refused to allow US Olympians to compete in the 1980 Moscow Games following the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan.
In response to the invasion, the Carter administration covertly armed Mujahideen fighters in Afghanistan to fight back against the Soviets.
Al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden and 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed were among the radical Muslim members of the Carter-backed Mujahideen.
Trump noted that he’s “way ahead in the polls against Biden” because the incumbent “has destroyed our country.”
