(SRN NEWS) – President-elect Donald Trump has expressed frustration that flags will be flying at half-staff when he takes office later this month.
It’s an action put in place by President Joe Biden to honor the late President Jimmy Carter, who died Sunday at 100. It’s not a timeline that Trump can do anything about — until after he takes office. According to Biden’s proclamation, flags will fly at half-staff for 30 days from Carter’s death, until Jan. 28. With the inauguration on Jan. 20, that means that flags will be at half-staff when Trump takes office and for the first week of his administration.
On Friday, one day before Carter began his final trip to Washington from his home in Georgia, Trump posted on social media that “Democrats are all ‘giddy’” about the notion that flags will be lowered when he takes office as president.
“Nobody wants to see this,” Trump wrote. He added that “no American can be happy about it. Let’s see how it plays out. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
Asked about Trump’s post at Friday’s briefing, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Biden would not consider reversing or reevaluating the half-staff plans.
It’s not the first time Trump has balked at the idea of flying the flag at half-staff. After the death of Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain — with whom Trump had a fractious relationship — in 2018, the Stars and Stripes were briefly lowered to half-staff over the weekend but went back up to full height the following Monday, while flags at the U.S. Capitol and elsewhere stayed at half-staff.
The flag was lowered again to half-staff after complaints from people in both the Republican and Democratic parties. Former presidents spoke at McCain’s funeral, but the senator’s family made clear they did not want Trump to attend.