I also don't see the analysis he's doing here. Carter didn't have guts, but was instead a gutless moral reprobate. Reagan on the other hand, for all of his flaws, showed guts against the Soviets, and proves that it was the right approach just a couple of years after this was written.
And that "statements from the past" standard applies to things he said just yesterday.
That’s because trump is shallow. He made a judgment on Carter as having balls based on how money he was willing to beg someone to give him. There are lots of people like that.