Among President Donald Trump’s first priorities after assuming the White House is ordering all American flags be flown at full mast on inauguration day, regardless of any mourning periods.
Hours after being sworn into office, Trump signed five executive orders – the first four being a series of appointments within his administration. But executive order No. 5, the first non-appointment related order, declares the flags be flown at full mast for the remainder of Monday and any future inauguration days.
Trump ordered this after complaining flags would only be flown at half-staff during his inaugural celebrations because they coincidentally coincided with the 30-day mourning period honoring former president Jimmy Carter.
“…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,” Trump wrote on Truth Social at the beginning of the month.
Per tradition, flags are flown at half-staff for 30 days following the death of a president. Carter died on December 29 at the age of 100.
Though the flags were meant to be flown at half-staff, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, a Trump ally, ordered the flags around the Capitol to be raised to celebrate Trump’s inauguration.
Dozens of governors followed suit, ordering their state capitals to raise the flag for inauguration day. That included California Governor Gavin Newsom, New York Governor Kathy Hochul, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Texas Governor Greg Abbott.
Trump is expected to sign at least 100 executive orders during his first week in office – many having to do with reshaping the executive branch, cracking down on immigration, rolling back energy regulations and slashing LGBT+ rights.
During his inaugural speech, the president previewed some of the executive orders such as getting rid of birthright citizenship – an attempt to revoke the right of children born in the U.S. to immigrant parents to live in the U.S. He also said he would try to rename the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America.”
But at the top of the list was ensuring any remaining American flags being flown at half-staff are be risen to full mast.
