Presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump says President Barack Obama is the best thing that ever happened to President Jimmy Carter.
“He is the single best thing to ever happen to Jimmy Carter because a lot of people are no longer looking at Jimmy Carter as our worst president,” Trump said during his campaign rally at Rimrock Auto Arena in Billings, Montana.
In fact, a poll in 2014 suggested President Obama edged out President George W. Bush, President Nixon, and President Carter as the nation’s worst president, according to The Washington Times.
In the “worst” competition, Mr. Obama barely edged out Mr. Bush, with 33 percent rating the incumbent the worst president of the post-World War II era to 28 percent for Mr. Bush. Richard Nixon, who in the wake of the Watergate scandal became the only president in history to resign the office, was a distant third at 13 percent, and Jimmy Carter was fourth at 8 percent.
A few months later, Carter commented on being compared to Obama as the worst president during an appearance on MSNBC.
MSNBC’s Ronan Farrow asked Carter, “John McCain reaching for the worst possible insult for President Obama earlier this year said this, ‘I have never seen anything like this in my life. I thought Jimmy Carter was bad, but he pales in comparison to this president in my opinion.’ The serious question is, what does is it feel like, and what is your response to, these moments of being used as an insult? Your legacy being used as an insult.”
Carter responded, “That’s a compliment to come from a war monger… I was lucky enough when I was president to keep our country at peace, and provide peace for others. I was lucky enough to go through my four years, we never shot a bullet or dropped a bomb or fired a missile.”