“On Jan. 20, the flags at the Capitol will fly at full-staff to celebrate our country coming together behind the inauguration of our 47th President, Donald Trump. The flags will be lowered back to half-staff the following day to continue honoring President Jimmy Carter,” Johnson wrote on X.
After Carter’s death, President Joe Biden ordered U.S. flags be flown at half-staff for 30 days “at the White House and on all public buildings and grounds … of the Federal Government in the District of Columbia and throughout the United States and its Territories and possessions” as well as at federal facilities, military installations and vessels abroad.
The White House did not immediately offer a comment regarding Johnson’s announcement when contacted by The Washington Post.
Republican governors in at least five states — Florida, Iowa, Alabama, Texas and Tennessee — have also ordered U.S. flags be raised on Inauguration Day and lowered again to half-staff on Jan. 21 in honor of Carter. Biden’s executive order applies to American flags on federal property, and while state governments typically follow suit in lowering their flags, they’re not legally required to do so.
In a statement Monday announcing his decision to have flags in Texas fly at full height for Inauguration Day, Gov. Greg Abbott (R) wrote, “While we honor the service of a former president, we must also celebrate the service of an incoming President and the bright future ahead for the United States of America.”
Trump, five days after Carter’s death, had complained in a social media post about the prospect of American flags being flown at half-staff during his inaugural ceremonies, suggesting without evidence that Democrats were “giddy” about the possibility.
“In any event, 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,” he wrote on Truth Social. “Nobody wants to see this, and no American can be happy about it.”
The Associated Press reported on Monday that flags at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida, were back flying at their full height after initially flying at half-staff in remembrance of Carter.
After Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona) died during Trump’s first term in office, the American flag above the White House was briefly lowered to half-staff over the weekend before being raised to full height again the coming Monday — an effective refusal by Trump to follow a tradition of leaving the flag at half-staff until interment. Flags at the U.S. Capitol and other locations, however, remained at half-staff.
Trump bitterly feuded with McCain while the senator was alive and continued to complain about him after his death. Amid intense scrutiny — including from the American Legion — about the change in the flag’s position, the flag was back at half-staff later the same day it had been raised, and Trump issued a statement offering “respect” for McCain.
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