PRESIDENT-elect Donald Trump and former President Barack Obama were spotted sharing a joke at the funeral of Jimmy Carter in an awkward moment before proceedings.
The 44th and 45th presidents were seen laughing in the second row at the National Cathedral in Washington DC in front of an icy Jill Biden and Kamala Harris.
Trump, with wife Melania sat to his left, was seen turning his head and body as he turned to say something to his predecessor.
Obama was seen chuckling several times as he lowered his head to hear what Trump was saying.
Relations between the two former presidents have been strained in recent years, with Obama recently cracking a double-entendre-laden joke about Trump’s “obsession with crowd sizes” at the Democratic National Convention.
Trump was always a huge critic of Obama, repeatedly raising the disproven “birther” argument to claim that he could not be the US president because he was born in Kenya.
However, Obama did not shake hands with Trump or Melania, despite shaking the hands of the other living presidents.
Fellow Republican Bush also pointedly did not shake Trump’s hands, but slapped Obama in the stomach before shaking hands with the others.
Bill and Hillary Clinton appeared to ignore Bush, Obama, and Trump as they walked into the service and took their seats.
Obama’s wife Michelle was not in attendance at the funeral of America’s longest-living president, who died at age 100 last month after almost two years in hospice care.
A spokeswoman for the former First Lady confirmed that she is in Hawaii and had a scheduling conflict that prevented her from attending the service.
His funeral has created the rare opportunity for five living presidents to be together in one place.
Before 1991, there was only one other period in US history when more than five presidents were alive at the same time – around 1861.
The last presidential funeral was George HW Bush’s in December 2018, attended by five former presidents, including Carter.
In 2023, all of the current and former first ladies were in attendance for the funeral of Carter’s late wife, Rosalynn.
Before the service began, Trump was also spotted shaking hands with his former Vice President Mike Pence.
It marked the first time the pair have been seen publicly in the same room in four years.
The cordial relations between Obama and Trump left many viewers of the funeral shocked.
One claimed that the pair were “talking like buddies at an NFL game.”
They add that the First Lady and Vice President Harris, on the other hand, “look like they want to go at it.”
Carter’s coffin was transported to Washington’s National Cathedral on Thursday morning after lying in state for two days in the Capitol.
Following the service, at which President Joe Biden will speak, his body will be returned to his hometown of Plains, Georgia.
He will be buried alongside his late wife at a private ceremony.
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