Three days after the Jan. 6 anniversary, with its indelible images of costumed rioters running amok in the Capitol, former President Jimmy Carter’s funeral service in the National Cathedral presented a historical picture of a different kind, one that spoke not of upended norms, but of preservation and strength.
It was a picture, unofficial but nevertheless sure to be memorialized and parsed for years, both because of its occasion and its rarity, of President-elect Donald J. Trump and his wife, Melania, seated next to President Barack Obama, who was seated next to George W. Bush and his wife, Laura, who were next to Bill and Hillary Clinton. All of them sat a row behind President Biden and Jill Biden, and all them wore remarkably similar dark suits, ties in shades of black to sky blue, and black suits and coats. (Michelle Obama was the sole presidential spouse who did not attend, reportedly because of scheduling conflicts.)
That meant that for the first time since Mr. Trump began his assault on what he called the Washington swamp, he and the other four living presidents, including the three who campaigned against him, appeared to be on the same page. Not because of a dress code, but because of their coded dress.
It made as clear a statement about transition of power and continuity as anything said during the actual certification of the election by the Senate earlier in the week (or anything Mr. Trump and Mr. Obama appeared to be chuckling about privately). And it suggested that Mr. Trump was fully cognizant of what it meant to look as if he were a traditional part of the very, very exclusive club that is the presidency, even as he attempts to transform it.
As Jason Carter, one of Mr. Carter’s grandsons, said to the men who had sat in the Oval Office, they share a knowledge of “the human side of the presidency like no others.”
Indeed, it was not insignificant that for one of rare times since he began his second run for the presidency, Mr. Trump, at a moment of such public pageantry, abandoned his signature uniform of flag blue suit, white shirt and bright red tie — the outfit that matches the flag and that has become the de facto uniform of most of the Republicans in the new administration.
Instead he wore a darker suit and a Democratic blue tie, one that seemed to reach across the aisle to honor the man who lay in state, and one just a touch brighter than that worn by Mr. Bush and in the same color family as the tie worn by Mr. Biden. Sure, it was just an accessory, but the harmonics were hard to miss in the sea of black.
Nor was it insignificant that Mrs. Trump — who had stood apart from the other first ladies clad in black at Rosalynn Carter’s funeral by wearing a gray Dior suit — chose a black Valentino coat with a broad white collar, dusted with a print of black and white flowers. In the coat she fit in seamlessly with Dr. Biden in her black Schiaparelli suit (the same one Dr. Biden had worn to Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral service in Westminster Abbey), as well as with Mrs. Clinton in her black trouser suit and Mrs. Bush in her black dress.
The Trump transition team has said that one of the differences between the president’s first term and the plans for his second is that this time around, Mr. Trump understands how the town works. In his many social media posts and public statements, Mr. Trump often seems to relish lobbing verbal grenades at that town, but at Mr. Carter’s funeral, he seemed, for one brief moment, to be trying to appear as if he were part of it.
