President Donald Trump found sympathy from an unexpected source in the pages on The New York Times Sunday.

Former President Jimmy Carter told TheNYT’s Maureen Dowd at his home in Plains, Ga., that the press treats Trump worse than any chief executive in living memory.

“I think the media have been harder on Trump than any other president certainly that I’ve known about,” Carter said. “I think they feel free to claim that Trump is mentally deranged and everything else without hesitation.”

Carter is friendly with National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster, and praised Trump’s diplomatic initiatives in the Middle East, he revealed in the interview. The indefatigable 93-year old has offered to serve the administration as a back channel envoy, communicating on Trump’s behalf with China and North Korea.

Carter undertook a secret peace mission to the Hermit Kingdom during former President Bill Clinton’s administration, and helped secure an agreement that halted the North’s nuclear development for several years.

Thus far, President Trump has declined Carter’s offer of service.

The former president made one other surprising revelation during the interview with Dowd. Though he endorsed Hillary Clinton’s 2016 White House bid and addressed the Democratic National Convention remotely in support of her candidacy, Carter and his wife Rosalynn revealed they voted for Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in the Georgia Democratic primary, that Clinton won comfortably.

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