Donald Trump revealed that the moments of laughter he shared with Barack Obama at Jimmy Carter’s funeral were genuine. 

The service meant to be a solemn tribute to the 39th president turned into a dramatic event on Thursday. Attendees witnessed tense interactions, cold stares, and secretive talks, resembling scenes from a reality TV show like Real Housewives.

One of the most talked about moments was a clear moment of affection between Trump and Obama. 

Trump later returned to his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida Thursday night to meet with Republican governors – and refused to say what he and Obama discussed. But he joked: ‘It did look very friendly, I must say.’

He noted that he had seen the coverage of it on television and the obsession over their conversation on social media. 

‘I didn’t realize how friendly it looked. I said, “Boy they look like two people who like each other” and we probably do,’ he said. ‘We have little different philosophies, right, but we probably do.’

The president-elect added, ‘I don´t know. We just got along. But I got along with just about everybody,’ perhaps referring to former Second Lady Karen Pence’s snub of him and Melania. 

He said that the entire cast of luminaries ‘met backstage’ before the funeral and said ‘we all got along very well.’ 

All the former presidents were together in a private room ahead of their entrances into the cathedral.

They also greeted President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden upon their arrival, according to the White House.

Trump helped birth the so-called ‘birther’ movement while Obama humiliated the reality TV host onstage at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in 2011 – considered a motivating factor for Trump’s decision to launch a 2016 White House run.

But on Thursday Trump and Obama acted like they were old friends. 

The Republican president-elect and the former Democratic commander-in-chief chatted, with Trump making Obama laugh at one point. 

The images prompted a number of caption contests online and calls for a lip-reader. 

Forensic lip reader Jeremy Freeman told DailyMail.com that Trump cryptically said it was important to speak to Obama in private ‘today’ so they could ‘deal’ with something.

Trump suggested they look for a ‘quiet place’ where they could discuss the mystery matter after the service. It remained unclear whether the crucial information Trump had to tell Obama related to a national security issue, or something else.

But the animated conversation between them left onlookers highly curious as to what they were whispering about. 

The two men are expected to see each other again in 11 days, when Trump is sworn-in for his second term.

They had a previous private conversation shortly after Trump was elected president in 2016.

Some of that chat at the White House has since come to light, including Obama telling Trump of his deep concerns over North Korea.

At the time, Obama said Pyongyang and its nuclear and missile programs represented the greatest threat to the United States as Trump embarked on his first term.

Their latest conversation came as Carter was celebrated for his personal humility and public service before, during and after his presidency.

All five of his living presidential successors were in attendance.

President Joe Biden, who was the first sitting senator to endorse Carter’s 1976 run for the White House, delivered a eulogy.

Biden and first lady Jill Biden were seated front row alongside Vice President Kamala Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff, whom many noticed an icy tension as they didn’t appear to address one another. 

Trump had Obama seated to his right, and wife Melania was to his left. Michelle Obama was not at the funeral.

At one point, Kamala Harris, seated in the row in front of Obama and Trump, turned back to look at their conversation, then turned around and let out a long sigh.

Obama was attending the service solo due to a scheduling conflict that had Michelle in Hawaii. 

Also in that row sat former President George W. Bush and Laura Bush, as well as former President Bill Clinton and former Democratic nominee and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.  

The third row was reserved for former vice presidents including Mike Pence and Karen Pence – who refused to shake Donald or Melania Trump’s hand – and Al Gore. 

All eyes were on the current and former political friends and foes as they arrived at the Washington National Cathedral Thursday morning. 

Biden, 82, who will leave office in 11 days, hinted at politics during his remarks at the funeral by repeating several times that ‘character’ was Carter’s chief attribute.

He appeared to make a dig at Trump when he said ‘We have an obligation to give hate no safe harbor’ and noted the importance of standing up to ‘abuse in power’.

The comments echoed Biden’s typical criticisms of Trump.

Ahead of the service Trump also had a cordial moment with Mike Pence, his former Vice President whom he pressured to overturn the 2020 election results, and then fell out with spectacularly.

Despite their differences the two men shook hands ahead of Carter’s service.

However, Karen Pence, seated next to her husband, pointedly refused to shake Trump’s hand, remaining in her seat.

She also snubbed Melania Trump, looking away when the incoming first lady arrived and appeared to speak to her.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau cast a side-eye look at Trump as the president-elect and first lady Melania Trump went to their own seats.

Carter was celebrated Thursday for his personal humility and public service before, during and after his presidency in a funeral at Washington National Cathedral featuring the kind of pageantry the 39th U.S. president typically eschewed. 

It was followed by an intimate hometown funeral near where he was born a century ago.

Biden and others took turns in the morning praising Carter’s record – which many historians have appraised more favorably since he lost his bid for a second term in 1980 – and extolling his character.

The dual ceremonies in Washington and Plains, Georgia, provided a moment of national comity in a notably partisan era and offered a striking portrait of a president who was once judged a political failure, only for his life ultimately to be recognized as having lasting national and global impact.

‘He built houses for people who needed homes,’ said Joshua Carter, a grandson who recalled how Carter regularly taught Sunday school in Plains after leaving the White House. 

‘He eliminated diseases in forgotten places. He waged peace anywhere in the world, wherever he saw a chance. He loved people.’

Jason Carter, another grandson, wryly noted his grandparents’ frugality, such as washing and reusing Ziploc bags, and his grandfather’s struggles with his cellphone.

‘They were small-town people who never forgot who they were and where they were from, no matter what happened in their lives,’ said Jason, who chairs the Carter Center, a global humanitarian operation founded by Jimmy and his late wife, Rosalynn Carter. 

Carter died December 29 at age 100, living so long that two of Thursday’s eulogies were written by people who died before him – his vice president, Walter Mondale, and his presidential predecessor, Gerald Ford.

Thursday concluded six days of national rites that began in Plains, where Carter, a former Naval officer, engineer and peanut farmer, was born in 1924, lived most of his life and died after 22 months in hospice care.

After the morning service, Carter´s remains, his four children and extended family returned to Georgia on a Boeing 747 that serves as Air Force One when the sitting president is aboard.