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Jimmy Carter told Trump how to put America First, but will he do it?
With a struggling economy, the US is facing a hard choice between ‘guns or butter.’ MEDEA BENJAMIN and NICHOLAS JS DAVIES see the signs that the incoming president will opt for the former
PAST AND PRESENT: Jimmy Carter (right) and Donald Trump

WITH president Jimmy Carter’s passing and Donald Trump about to return to the White House, it’s a good time to recall a phone conversation that Carter had with Trump during his first term. Carter’s advice would serve Trump well if he really wants to fulfil his campaign promise to Put America First — something he failed to do in his first term.

In April 2019, Jimmy Carter told his church congregation in Georgia that President Trump had called him for advice about China. Carter said he told Trump that China was economically overtaking the United States as the world’s largest and most dynamic economy because the United States had spent decades wasting trillions of dollars to fight endless wars, while China had instead focused on economic development and lifted hundreds of millions of its people out of extreme poverty.

“China has not wasted a single penny on war,” Carter said, “and that’s why they’re ahead of us, in almost every way.”

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