President Trump Thanks Jimmy Carter For ‘Nice Remarks’

WASHINGTON, DC — President Donald Trump had some kind words Saturday for a Democrat he previously disparaged, thanking former President Jimmy Carter on Twitter for making "nice remarks" about him in an interview last weekend with The New York Times. In the interview, Carter said Trump has been treated poorly by the media.

"Just read the nice remarks by President Jimmy Carter about me and and how badly I am treated by the press (Fake News)," Trump tweeted early Saturday. "Thank you Mr. President!"

In the interview with The Times, Carter, 93, said he would like to work with Trump, especially to smooth out relations with North Korea. One of the founding tenets of the Carter Center is that diplomacy should be a first step in addressing escalating international tensions.

"I think the media have been harder on Trump than any other president that I've known about," Carter told The Times. "I think they feel free to claim that Trump is mentally deranged and everything else without hesitation."

In 2011, Trump dismissed Carter, the 39th president as one of the worst in history, but not the worst. Speaking of then-President Barack Obama, Trump said: "He's been a horrible president. I always said the worst president was Jimmy Carter, guess what? Jimmy Carter goes to second place. Barack Obama has been the worst president ever. [In] the history of this country, Barack Obama is Number One."

Carter's defense of the current president bolsters Trump's claims that the media are unfair in their coverage. As he did in his Saturday tweet praising Carter, Trump dismisses press coverage that is unfavorable as "fake news."

Speaking at United States Coast Guard Academy commencement ceremonies in May, Trump told the graduates: "Look at the way I have been treated lately, especially by the media. No politician in history, and I say this with great surety, has been treated worse or more unfairly. You can't let them get you down, you can't let the critics and the naysayers get in the way of your dreams."

He returned to that theme in a tweet earlier Saturday: "Very little reporting about the GREAT GDP numbers announced yesterday (3.0 despite the big hurricane hits). Best consecutive Q's in years!"

Photo of former President Jimmy Carter by Eddie Mullholland-WPA Pool/Getty/Getty Image