America – and Donald Trump – have much to learn from the life and service of Jimmy Carter

As the tributes poured in from the United States and around the world, it was hard not to observe that even in death there can be good and bad timing – and Jimmy Carter’s was perfect. Most of all, with just three weeks remaining before Donald Trump enters the White House for the second time, the passing of Jimmy Carter has provided the ideal pretext for Trump’s detractors to hurl yet more disapproving stones at the man they love to hate. He advised Americans to try and be a little more like Carter, insisting that the former president’s qualities – “honesty, faith and humility” – were “for all times”, not part of a bygone era. It must be doubted whether the contrasts now being drawn both with the state of the US today and with the character of the next president will serve to narrow any of the deep political divisions that afflict the country – although Donald Trump, for his part, was on best behaviour, describing Carter as a president who had come “at a pivotal time” for the country and had done “everything in his power to improve the lives of all Americans”.