Trump and Obama Share a Laugh at Carter's Funeral as Biden Warns of 'the Abuse of Power' (January 9, 2025)

At the state funeral for former President Jimmy Carter, the moment everyone talked about came before the service began. President-elect Donald Trump and former President Barack Obama sat side by side at Washington National Cathedral. “Despite having feuded politically over the years, the two appeared at ease with each other, smiling and chuckling during their conversation ahead of the service,” Fox News reported [3].

Carter “died at his home in Plains, Georgia, on Dec. 29 at 100 years old,” Fox reported [3].

The video above shows Trump and Obama at the Jan. 9, 2025, funeral. Details come from Fox News, the White House pool reports and the official transcript of President Joe Biden’s eulogy published by the American Presidency Project [1][2][3].

”Invited Him to Play Golf”

What were they talking about? A book on the 2024 election later offered an answer. “Instead he sat next to Barack Obama and invited him to play golf, enticing him with descriptions of Trump’s courses around the world,” the book said, according to Fox News [4].

The book described Trump’s arrival in Washington. “He’d attended Jimmy Carter’s funeral, walking into Washington not as a scourge but as a conqueror,” it said. “He could ignore the speech on character by the outgoing president, and the cold shoulder from the vice president he’d defeated.” “He was no longer an anomaly. He was being treated like an American president” [4].

”Not on the 2025 Bingo Card”

The image spread fast. “Trump and Obama sitting next to each other was not on the 2025 bingo card,” one user posted on X, Fox reported. “What an image,” Politico congressional reporter Anthony Adragna posted. “Obama and Trump are acting like they’re at happy hour,” another X user joked. “Did Obama vote for Trump too?!” OutKick founder Clay Travis teased [3].

Fox listed the other notable mourners nearby: “former President George W. Bush, former Vice President Mike Pence, former President Bill Clinton, former first lady and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris” [3].

The Arrivals

The White House pool tracked the guests. “President-elect Trump and former first lady Melania Trump were escorted into the Cathedral at 9:51 a.m. Vice President Kamala Harris and second gentleman Douglas Emhoff entered at 9:57 a.m.,” the pooler wrote [2].

When Carter’s casket was carried in, the pooler wrote that Biden, “and former Presidents Obama and Trump, as well as Vice President Harris, and their spouses,” all “placed their right hands over their hearts” [2].

”The Greatest Sin of All: the Abuse of Power”

Biden delivered a eulogy built on one word. “It was an endorsement based on what I believe is Jimmy Carter’s enduring attribute: character. Character. Character,” he said of his early backing of Carter in 1974 [1].

Then he added: “You know, we have an obligation to give hate no safe harbor and to stand up to what my dad used to say is the greatest sin of all: the abuse of power,” Biden said [1].

“Do the ends justify the means?” he asked [1].

Biden described a visit to Plains in April 2021. “Rosalynn met us at the front door with her signature smile,” he said. He closed with Scripture: “In the words of the prophet Micah, who Jimmy so admired until his final breath, Jimmy Carter did justly, loved mercy, walked humbly” [1].

Earlier, he listed Carter’s roles: “A White Southern Baptist who led on civil rights. A decorated Navy veteran who brokered peace. A brilliant nuclear engineer who led on nuclear nonproliferation” [1].

By the Numbers

100: Carter’s age at his death, per Fox News [3].
9:51 a.m.: when the Trumps entered the cathedral, per the pool [2].
1974: the year Biden said he first backed Carter [1].
11 days: from the eulogy to Biden’s Jan. 20 statement on pardoning his family [6].
2014: the start of the period covered by those pardons [5].

What Happened Next

Biden pardoned his family. On his way out of office, Biden granted James B. Biden, Sara Jones Biden, Valerie Biden Owens, John T. Owens and Francis W. Biden “A FULL AND UNCONDITIONAL PARDON FOR ANY NONVIOLENT OFFENSES” for the period from Jan. 1, 2014, onward [5].

The statement identified them as “the President’s brother James and his wife Sara, sister Valerie Biden Owens and her husband John Owens, and brother Francis” [6].

“My family has been subjected to unrelenting attacks and threats, motivated solely by a desire to hurt me—the worst kind of partisan politics,” Biden said in a statement on Jan. 20, 2025. “The issuance of these pardons should not be mistaken as an acknowledgment that they engaged in any wrongdoing, nor should acceptance be misconstrued as an admission of guilt for any offense” [6].

He pardoned officials, too. In a second statement that day, Biden said “some have even been threatened with criminal prosecutions, including General Mark A. Milley, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, and the members and staff of the Select Committee To Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol,” and he pardoned them [7].

For Biden’s earlier pardon of his son, see HYGO News’ page on the Camp David news conference.