Trump says he will attend Jimmy Carter’s funeral
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
US President-elect Donald Trump declined to say whether he had spoken to any of Mr Jimmy Carter’s family members since his death.
PHOTO: REUTERS
FLORIDA - President-elect Donald Trump said he would attend next week’s state funeral for Mr Jimmy Carter, the former US president who died on Dec 29 at the age of 100, and predicted that only House Speaker Mike Johnson could win the vote for the House’s top job.
As Trump entered a New Year’s Eve Party at his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida on Dec 31, he was asked by a reporter whether he planned to be on hand for Mr Carter’s funeral at the National Cathedral on Jan 9 in Washington, DC.
“I do. I’ll be there. We were invited,” Trump said, declining to say whether he had spoken to any of Mr Carter’s family members since his death.
At the black tie gala attended by billionaire tech chief executive Elon Musk, Senator Ted Cruz and other supporters, Trump was also asked what message he had for Republicans who have not followed his lead and backed House Speaker Johnson’s re-election bid.
The House is scheduled to elect a Speaker on Jan 3 following the swearing-in of the new Congress. Trump’s endorsement of Mr Johnson on Dec 30 was seen as key to his hopes of maintaining the post he assumed in October 2023.
But the move by 34 Republicans to vote against Mr Johnson’s stopgap funding Bill in December raised questions over whether he might struggle to garner enough support for re-election.
“I think they’ll support Speaker Johnson,” Trump told reporters. “He’s the one that can win right now. Almost everybody likes him. Others are very good, too, but they have 30 or 40 people that don’t like them.”
Trump was also asked about his apparent shift in stance on the use of the H-1B visa to attract foreign workers, following a public dispute over the program over the past few days. Some Trump supporters believe the visa allocations undercut American workers and go against his “America First” agenda.
Trump has criticised the H-1B visa in the past, but in a social media post on Dec 28, he sided with Mr Musk in defending it as a tool to import talent. Mr Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, had vowed to go to “war” to preserve the programme, triggering backlash online.
“I didn’t change my mind. I’ve always felt that we have to have the most competent people in our country,” Trump said about the programme. “We need smart people coming into our country, and we need a lot of people coming in. We are going to have jobs like we’ve never had before.” REUTERS
