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President Trump Gets His Shorts in a Twist
Over the last eight years, I’ve tolerated a lot from Donald Trump. But his latest complaint is truly pathetic. Instead of rising above a small disappointment—that the flag would still be flying at half-staff during his inauguration to acknowledge the passing of Jimmy Carter–he’s complaining about it. From what I can tell, he’s been upset about it for a couple of weeks.
Traditionally, the flag is flown at half-staff for 30 days, to recognize a president’s death. But poor Trump has taken that decision personally and protested the procedure:
‘The Democrats are all ‘giddy’ about our magnificent American Flag potentially being at ‘half mast’ during my Inauguration,’ Trump said in a post on Truth Social, incorrectly using the term that refers to flags being flown halfway up the mast on a ship, not a flag pole. ‘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.’
Excuse me? Who’s thinking about himself?
The fact is, we honor those who have passed away in our country. To interpret the lowering of the flag as a demonstration that people don’t love our country is petty and immature. Whether we liked Carter or not is not the issue. Would Trump have insisted on raising the flag if an honored Republican had died? Yes, he probably would have thought it distracted people from his shining moment.
Speaker Mike Johnson finally intervened to make this embarrassing and foolish demand go away:
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and some Republican governors are promising to fly flags at full-staff Monday after Trump repeatedly complained about them being lowered for his swearing in.
Johnson announced Tuesday that flags at the Capitol will fly at full-staff for the inauguration and then return to half-staff the next day in honor of Carter.
I have news for you, Mr. Trump. Death is part of life. You should be especially sensitive to that after two assassination attempts on your life. You might just want to show a little compassion to the families and close friends of the Carter family.
Published in Culture
Sounds like a good compromise. Maybe nobody considered this kind of overlap before.
If flags were at half-staff for some other reason when something great happened, such as perhaps the moon landing, or VE Day, I dunno, it also seems appropriate to raise them for (at least) a day, then lower them again.
I wouldn’t even mind if flags were half-staff for some reason from the end of June up to July 3rd, then raised full for the 4th, and then lowered again.
Let me offer a different take totally ignoring President Trump’s personality: There are two things America should routinely celebrate together — the Fourth of July and Inauguration Day. The former is obvious but the latter, reflecting the routine and peaceful transfer of power, is an extremely important and significant event. Have the fullness of American national pride on display is not trivial nor, in my opinion, optional. Ironically it is the glee of Democrats that the 30 days of mourning would fall across Inauguration Day, and their philosophy of diminishing national importance and pride, that makes me warm to Trump’s complaint and Speaker Johnson’s solution.
I wonder if the Democrats really gave it a whole lot of thought; Trump makes that assumption. They didn’t choose when Carter died. I think, as I said, that Johnson just wanted the issue to go away.
No, they didn’t. But have you noticed that it is a core competency of Democrats to exploit tragedies for political gain?
I expect the Dems would have wanted the flags raised if Kamala had won.
Yes. “Jimmy would have wanted it.”
“He voted for her, you know.”
Trump’s taking a shot at the Democrats through his demand doesn’t speak well for him. (Just because the Dems exploit tragedy doesn’t mean Trump needs to.) I appreciated viewing this video of Jason Carter speaking about his PawPaw. You may not agree with all he says, but you might want to listen to a little of it:
The Republicans didn’t do so badly when it came to East Palestine. Sure, the Dems had it coming, but….
That’s what they want you to think. You just wait, that SOB Biden will probably die just before Donald Trump’s birthday, to take attention away from The Donald. Bill Clinton will probably die in a way that takes attention away from Donald Trump, too. You can’t trust those soon-to-die people, they’re always trying to pull something.
Oh, Randy, thanks for making me smile.
Indeed. Having the flag fly high for one day out of 30, on Inauguration Day, is not too much to ask (or, to borrow this thread’s title phrase, get one’s “shorts in a twist” about).
PS:
The last time that this sort of situation arose was in 1973, after the death of LBJ, when Nixon raised the flags to full mast for one day to celebrate the first release of Vietnam prisoners. He had them lowered the next day.
The symbolism of the flags being at half-mast on Trump’s inauguration day would have lasted a thousand years. It would have been a pall on his presidency and our country’s future.
Symbols persist when all context falls away. There’s VJ Day in Times Square in 1945:
Or the protester standing up to the Chinese Communists’ tanks in Tiananmen Square:
Norman Rockwell’s famous Four Freedoms paintings:
Trump is absolutely right to prevent this from happening.
A thousand years? Really?
I agree with Susan about Trump’s behavior, but I also think that some people are far too eager to find any reason to fly our flag at half mast. I also think there is entirely too much flying of our flag at half mast, and I suspect it is often not really done to honor the people it is claimed to honor.
In case it matters, I hereby request that when I die that our country’s flag continue to fly high. It’s also OK not to be happy that I’m gone, but maybe there are also those who should be. Either way, fly the flag high.
Susan you know I like you . So take this in that vain.
Time to untwist your nickers .
Well-said, Susan.
Many, if not most, of us conservatives who voted for Trump knew things were going to be bad, just not how bad how soon.
And we assumed (I still do) that the Democrats would have been much worse, much sooner, than Trump.
It remains my hope that once he takes office, things will start getting much better than they have been going so far.
But I for one am very surprised by how dangerous and damaging his actions (including his threats, which ARE actions for a man in his position) have been even before he took office.
I hope that public opinion of a majority of conservatives, plus the grown-ups who surround him, will be enough to save us.
Trump does pay attention to what conservatives think. He backed down on having Husham Al-Husainy speak at his inauguration. I suppose the usual suspects would say that we should have united behind Trump on his initial choice.
I agree about lowering the flag for minor things. I will miss you!
You know, Kevin, I am considering it…
I hope that public opinion of a majority of conservatives, plus the grown-ups who surround him, will be enough to save us.
So do I!
Maybe we should have a Ricochet Virtual Flag on the Main Page and Member feeds. Charles or his delegate could control it, or we could have some kind of virtual Capture the Flag game to control its orientation, and whether it is Full Up or Half Mast. Maybe there are additional military or nautical flags we could add or subtract for added symbolism. Would we use the U.S. Flag, or have EJHill come up with a Ricochet Flag ? (maybe the Jolly Roger ?).
No, he’s not.
The idea that the image of flags being flown at half-mast at Trump’s inauguration would last “a thousand years” and be some kind of pall on his presidency is not credible. It really isn’t a big deal – the fact of the death of a former president is the explanation. Trump’s objection is stupid and shallow – Trump’s narcissism in this matter is what will be remembered now.
I agree with you. It used to be a big deal for the flag to be flown at half-mast, and I remember it most often used at the death of a former president. But now, it seems like the flag is flown at half-mast so much (a third to a half of the year, I’d say) it has lost its impact as a symbol.
President Trump seems to constantly pick the silliest battles to fight….why not be on Truth Social discussing how 1/3 of Medicare spending does nothing to improve the health of seniors and how we will be looking to cut that waste…but oh no…let’s worry about how the flag will be flown on an inauguration that nobody will remember in 10 years anyway…oh wait he will…so that is all that matters. Actually he wont because he will probably be dead in 10 years….what a waste of more political capital…feels like we are watching a bank account drain out on a computer screen with the political capital he has wasted in the past 3 weeks.
We will know in 6 months if he has learned anything on how to govern and we will also know if there will be a Republican Party after 2028…if you think Democrats are in the forest now…if President Trump blows this the Republican Party will never recover…he has built a coalition but man he has to deliver to keep it together and to make it a true one. It is a coalition that has taken a risk…they will not take it again. And yes…whatever he does will be better than what a Harris presidency would have been….but is that the bar we are supposed to adhere to?????
How old is this tradition? It doesn’t seem to be in the 1923 Flag Code nor the 1942 statute, and appears to have started in a 1954 Presidential Decree.
Here’s the 1954 Proclamation thereof: https://www.archives.gov/federal-register/codification/proclamations/03044.html
Thanks, G!
Rodin, I agree. The image of our flag being flown at half mast during the inauguration of our President is unseemly at best. The inauguration will be seen throughout the world. Our country is pulling together with excitement with the opportunity we now have to throw off the shackles of weakness and division. This is a typical Democrat ploy. Trump knows it. So should we.