It didn’t take Donald Trump much time at all to pay his respects to former President Jimmy Carter on Wednesday.
Trump walked inside the rotunda of the U.S. Capitol, hand in hand with former and future first lady Melania Trump.
The couple moved toward the center of the room. Trump let go of the first lady’s hand. He closed his eyes, slowly swayed back and forth, opened his eyes, looked to his left, turned around, took the first lady’s hand again, and exited from where he came.
The whole operation took about a minute.
But how long was Trump really supposed to pay homage to Carter? If he loitered around the casket, he would just delay the viewing for members of the public trying to come in from the cold. If he was too quick — and a minute was definitely speedy, even for a man who prides himself on his impatience — it might seem impolite.
Trump didn’t seem concerned, however. There is simply too much going on for the incoming president to worry about offending a former (and deceased) president.
The first days of a new Congress are always abuzz. There is legislation waiting to be offered. Cabinet officials waiting to be confirmed. Decisions about reconciliation bills waiting to be decided.
But that didn’t seem to be the case for the other politicians visiting Carter. The frenzy of Congress seemed to be at a standstill.
Exactly 24 hours before Trump’s visit, members of Congress, three U.S. Supreme Court justices and Vice President Kamala Harris all gathered to watch as Carter was brought to the Capitol to lie in state.
Despite a rare snowstorm hobbling the region, Tuesday’s late afternoon sun gleamed through the rotunda’s windows, warming the room with a golden glow.
Lawmakers from both parties stood together, waiting for Carter, and a grandiose room that most lawmakers treat as just another passageway between the House and the Senate was treated with solemn respect.
Newly elected freshmen in the House, who had just voted for their first bill earlier that day, were packed alongside senior leaders who have spent decades in Congress. None were separated by party or faction or rank.
Republican freshman Rep. Mike Haridopolos chatted with former House Democratic Leader Steny Hoyer. Inaugural Freedom Caucus Chair Rep. Jim Jordan walked in alongside Congressional Black Caucus PAC Chair Rep. Gregory Meeks. Democratic Rep. Sam Liccardo was pushed between Republican Reps. Lloyd Smucker and Bryan Steil.
In a town rarely heralded for its bipartisanship, where members of Congress often complain — and sometimes even celebrate — how little time they spend with those across the aisle, all were waiting together for Carter.
“They said it would be 10 more minutes, 10 minutes ago,” one House member whispered.
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz watched Carter’s horse-drawn caisson press toward the Capitol on CNN on her tablet. Rep. Rob Bresnahan watched it live from Fox News on his cell phone a couple rows behind her.
The U.S. Army Brass Quintet played Christian hymns like “Amazing Grace” and “When Peace Like a River,” but also “Clair de Lune” and “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” as several House members quietly sang along.
The only thing that broke the music was a 21-gun salute. The echo inside was loud enough to sound as if someone was pounding on a door just outside of the rotunda, yet the guns were fired well away from the Capitol.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer entered the rotunda alongside Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff.
Row after row of Carter’s family and loved ones entered the room as officers laid Carter’s casket in the dome’s center, the exact center point of Washington, D.C.
“Lord, he made the world more palatable,” Senate Chaplain Barry Black said in his opening prayer, noting Carter’s “commitment to leave the world better than he found it.”
Carter’s service postpresidency was the central focus of Johnson’s and Thune’s eulogies. “The longest postpresidency of any president ever,” Thune noted.
Harris focused on Carter’s achievements in office, like establishing agencies like the Department of Energy and the Department of Education, as well as his appointment of more Black judges than all of his predecessors combined.
Johnson had one policy of Carter’s to highlight too. “As long as he was in office, he hated government waste,” he said.
When Carter walked out on the East Front steps of the Capitol to take the oath of office, Johnson was 4 years old. Carter is the first president he remembers.
Now, as Carter lies in state, the country is again on the brink of presidential transition.
The day before he paid his respects to Carter, Trump bashed one of Carter’s signature legacies: giving control of the Panama Canal back to Panama.
The incoming president suggested to reporters he could use military coercion to take it back.
“The Panama Canal is a disgrace, what took place at the Panama Canal,” Trump said Tuesday morning. “Jimmy Carter gave it to them for $1 and they were supposed to treat us well.”
“Nobody wants to talk about the Panama Canal now because it’s inappropriate, I guess. But — because it’s a bad part of the Carter legacy,” Trump added.
“But he was a good man,” he said.
—
Katherine Swartz is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.