Former President Jimmy Carter is still alive despite viral, fake death announcement

Former President Jimmy Carter is still alive despite social media claims.

A fake letter announcing the 99-year-old former president’s death — complete with typos and jokes — was widely shared on social media, including by Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah. (Lee’s X post has since been removed.) 

The letter, which seemingly comes from the Office of Jimmy Carter, starts off believable. "Former President Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.), a passionate champion of human rights, democracy, WWII veteran, and 39th president of the United States, passed away Tuesday, July 23, at 01:34 am at his home in Plains, Georgia at the age of 99," it reads. 

But by the second paragraph, the letter devolves into satire. It lists "selling the United States out to Panama" and "getting soft on the Soviet Union" as among Carter’s foreign policy achievements. 

The letter goes on to include salacious references to Carter’s late wife, former first lady Rosalynn Carter, and other first ladies. 

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The original July 23 X post included an image description that characterized the letter as fake. "President Carter is still alive and in hospice care. This was an experiment to see how gullible people are to sensationalist headlines," it read. 

 (Screenshot from X.) 

The Carter Center, a nonprofit organization Carter founded, told PolitiFact that the former president is still alive.

"The letter is false. There has been no announcement or change," the Carter Center’s media office said in an email to PolitiFact.

Carter, who served as president from 1977 to 1981, entered hospice care in February 2023. In June, Carter’s grandson, Jason Carter, told Southern Living there had been "no change" in the former president’s condition since he began his hospice stay. 

At 99 years old, Carter remains both the oldest living former U.S. president and the longest-lived president in U.S. history. We rate the claim he died False.