Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive order directing the Justice Department to re-examine the feasibility of issuing criminal charges against Americans or others on U.S. soil who engage in flag-burning.
NewsNation first reported the impending executive order late Wednesday evening.
A controversial means of protest, burning the American flag is an act that has long been viewed by the Supreme Court as a protected First Amendment right. News of Trump’s order signals a willingness to relitigate that legal precedent before the nation’s highest legal authority.
Trump has personally condemned protesters for burning the American flag in the past, and has even called for a constitutional amendment to scale back free speech protections in order to criminalize the practice.
“You should get a one-year jail sentence if you do anything to desecrate the American flag,” Trump in 2024 during a “Fox & Friends” interview.
“Now, people will say, ‘Oh, it’s unconstitutional.’ Those are stupid people. Those are stupid people that say that,” he said at the time. “We have to work in Congress to get a one-year jail sentence. When they’re allowed to stomp on the flag and put lighter fluid on the flag and set it afire, when you’re allowed to do that — you get a one-year jail sentence, and you’ll never see it again.”
