US flags will fly at half-staff this month to mourn the passing of former President Jimmy Carter, who died on December 29, 2024, at age 100. However, President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration, also this month, has prompted his objection to this decision.
In his proclamation regarding Carter’s death, President Joe Biden ordered flags to be flown at half-staff for 30 days “as an expression of public sorrow,” a period encompassing President-elect Trump’s inauguration on January 20th.
This action complies with a 1954 proclamation stipulating that upon the death of a President or former President, flags at federal buildings, US embassies, and military sites should be flown at half-staff for 30 days.
Biden’s proclamation also declared January 9th a National Day of Mourning, with a memorial service scheduled for that day at the Washington National Cathedral. Trump is expected to attend. Carter’s tributes began January 4th with a procession in Plains, Georgia, and he will lie in state in the Capitol Rotunda from January 7th to 9th.
Following Carter’s death, Trump posted on Truth Social, stating, “While I strongly disagreed with him philosophically and politically, I also realized that he truly loved and respected our Country, and all it stands for. He worked hard to make America a better place, and for that I give him my highest respect.”
Trump later expressed on Truth Social his belief that Democrats are celebrating the half-staff flags during his inauguration.
“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. “Nobody wants to see this, and no American can be happy about it. Let’s see how it plays out.”
Flags were flown at half-staff during President Richard Nixon’s second inauguration on January 20, 1973, due to their prior lowering following the death of President Harry S. Truman on December 26, 1972.
When questioned by reporters about the White House reconsidering the decision in light of Trump’s concerns, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre firmly responded, “no.”
After his inauguration, Trump could theoretically overturn Biden’s proclamation and raise the flags, a step Nixon took for a day in 1973 to honor released American POWs from Vietnam. Although this occurred during a period of national mourning following President Lyndon B. Johnson’s death, the brief flag raising was justified by Johnson’s “highest respect and affection for the men in uniform who gave so much on the battlefields and in the prison camps.”
This isn’t Trump’s first involvement in flag-related controversies. Following Senator John McCain’s death in 2018, flags at some federal buildings were raised earlier than usual. Subsequently, they were lowered again.