Flags to fly for Trump’s inauguration despite half-staff order for Carter’s death: NPR

President-elect Donald Trump speaks at a House Republican conference call on Capitol Hill in November 2024.

President-elect Donald Trump speaks at a House Republican conference call on Capitol Hill in November 2024.

Allison Robbert-Pool/Getty Images


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Allison Robbert-Pool/Getty Images

The flag will be flown at full staff on January 20 for Donald Trump’s inauguration as president, despite an order from President Biden to lowering flags to half-staff in memory of the late President Jimmy Carter.

House Representative Mike Johnson, a Republican, announced the decision to raise the flags to full staff in a message on X, writes: “On January 20, the flags on the Capitol will fly at full staff to celebrate our country standing together behind the inauguration of our 47th President, Donald Trump.”

Flags will be lowered back to half-staff the following day to continue honoring President Jimmy Carter.”

Carter, who was beloved by many during his post-presidential tenure, died at the age of 100 on December 29 last year, making him the longest-lived president in US history. As it is tradition after the death of a president, Biden ordered that flags be flown at half-staff on federal properties for 30 days, which would coincide with the inauguration of the president-elect.

However, Trump charged Democrats about being “giddy” at the thought of the flag not flying at full height during the swearing-in ceremony.

“Democrats are all ‘giddy’ that our magnificent American flag is potentially at ‘half-mast’ during my inauguration,” Trump wrote on his platform Truth Social. “They think it’s so great and are so happy about it because they really don’t love our country, they only think about themselves.

“In any case, due to the death of President Jimmy Carter, for the first time ever during an inauguration of a future president, the flag may be at half-staff. No one wants to see this, and no American can be happy about it. Let’s see how it unfolds.”

Trump’s demands mark a departure from tradition. When President Nixon was inaugurated in 1973, flags at the Capitol building were flown at half-staff in honor of former President Harry Truman, who died on December 26.