Republican governors in at least seven states have ordered American flags to be raised to full-staff on the day President-elect Trump is inaugurated, in the midst of a national month of mourning honoring the late President Jimmy Carter.
The governors’ moves align with U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R), who said Tuesday that flags over the Capitol would fly at full-staff during Trump’s inauguration on Monday before returning to half-staff in Carter’s honor.
“Idaho will recognize the swearing in of our 47th president, Donald Trump, by raising our flags on this momentous day. This is a historic transition in our nation’s leadership, and we will celebrate it,” Gov. Brad Little (R) said in a statement Wednesday morning.
In a letter to Florida’s Director of Real Estate Management and Development, the agency that oversees state buildings and their flags, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) called Inauguration Day “an important tradition of our Republic where Americans come together to celebrate the peaceful transition of power between presidents.”
“On this unique occasion, where we simultaneously celebrate the service of an incoming president and commend the service of a former president, our nation’s flag will be prominently displayed at full-staff to honor the tradition of our founding fathers and the sacrifices made by those who have served to ensure the torch of liberty continues to burn strong,” DeSantis wrote.
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds (R), North Dakota Gov. Kelly Armstrong (R), Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R), Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey (R) and Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen (R) also ordered flags to full-staff on Inauguration Day.
President Biden ordered flags flown over public buildings, military posts and naval vessels to be lowered to half-staff for 30 days after Carter died on Dec. 29, a custom codified in federal law upon the death of a current or former president.
But Biden’s order, and the federal code on which it is based, applies only to federal buildings. There is no federal law requiring states to follow the same protocol when honoring the passage of a late president.
Trump had complained on his social media channel about the unhappy coincidence of Carter’s death and his own inauguration.
“[B]ecause of the death of President Jimmy Carter, the Flag [sic] may, for the first time ever during an Inauguration [sic] of a future President [sic], be at half mast. Nobody wants to see this, and no American can be happy about it. Let’s see how it plays out,” Trump wrote in part on his Truth Social network.
Trump has kept the flag at full-staff at his private club at Mar-a-Lago in Florida, in spite of DeSantis’s state order that flags be flown at half-staff. That order does not cover private businesses or residences like Trump’s club.
Biden’s order that the flag stand at half-staff runs through Jan. 28.