When Trump Is Sworn In, House Speaker Says, Capitol Hill Flags Will Be Raised to Full-Staff

More Republican leaders are breaking with the federal order for the American flag to be flown at half-staff during President Trump’s inauguration.Per tradition, President Biden ordered flags at federal buildings to be flown at half-staff for 30 days in honor of the late President Carter, a decision which has drawn Trump’s ire because the time frame overlaps with his inauguration. Speaker Johnson posted on his X account Tuesday, “On January 20th, the flags at the Capitol will fly at full-staff to celebrate our country coming together behind the inauguration of our 47th President, Donald Trump.”He said the flags would be lowered back to half-staff the next day.His announcement followed the decision by two Republican governors also to order the flag to be flown at full-staff on January 20. The governor of Alabama, Kay Ivey, said Monday that flags at the state Capitol and other state buildings there would be raised to full-staff for the inauguration and returned to half-staff on January 21. Governor Abbott kicked off the trend when he said Monday that Texas would fly flags at full-staff during Trump’s inauguration. He said the nation honors Carter’s service but “must also celebrate the service of an incoming president.”Usually, the issue of whether the American flag is flown at full-staff is not controversial ahead of a presidential inauguration. However, Mr. Biden’s order to lower fly the flag at half-staff for 30 days to honor Carter has dragged the Stars and Stripes into the political fray. President Eisenhower established the protocols for the flag when he issued a proclamation in 1954 that American flags should be flown at half-staff, a sign of mourning, for 30 days when a president or former president dies. Trump previously criticized the decision to keep the flag at half-staff. In a post on Truth Social, he wrote, “The Democrats are all ‘giddy’ about our magnificent American Flag potentially being at ‘half mast’ during my Inauguration. They think it’s so great, and are so happy about it because, in actuality, they don’t love our Country, they only think about themselves.“In any event, because of the death of President Jimmy Carter, the Flag may, for the first time ever during an Inauguration of a future President, be at half mast. Nobody wants to see this, and no American can be happy about it,” he said. Trump’s inauguration is not the first time a president has been sworn in while the flag flew at half-staff. It happened most recently in 1973. President Nixon ordered the flag to be flown at half-staff after President Truman’s death, and the 30-day period overlapped with his second inauguration.The 30-day period for the flag to be flown at half-staff is not an unalterable order. Mr. Biden could order flags to be flown at full-staff for Trump’s inauguration if he chose to. Yet the chances of that happening seem slim — the White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, told reporters earlier this month that Mr. Biden would not reconsider his order for the flags to be flown at half-staff despite Trump’s criticism.

When Trump Is Sworn In, House Speaker Says, Capitol Hill Flags Will Be Raised to Full-Staff

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