House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said on Tuesday that flags at the U.S. Capitol will be returned to full-staff for Inauguration Day and then to half-staff the next day to continue honoring former President Jimmy Carter’s recent passing.
“On January 20th, 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,” Johnson wrote in a post on X.
President Joe Biden ordered flags on all federal grounds—including military posts, naval stations, vessels, embassies, and U.S. territories—to be lowered to half-staff for 30 days to honor the former president, who died on Dec. 29, 2024.
The Biden administration didn’t respond to The Epoch Times’ question on whether it would make an exception for Inauguration Day.
U.S. Flag Code doesn’t require flags to be flown at full-staff on Inauguration Day. It does, however, require that flags be flown at half-staff for 30 days during mourning for a former president.
“The U.S. Flag is otherwise flown at half-staff (or half-mast, on ships) when directed by the President of the United States or a state governor,” the code states.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, said on Monday that flags on state grounds will be raised to full-staff for Inauguration Day “to celebrate our democratic tradition of transferring power to a new President.”
“As we unite our country and usher in this new era of leadership, I ordered all flags to be raised to full-staff at the Texas Capitol and all state buildings for the inauguration of President Trump,” Abbott said.
Though the state honors Carter’s leadership, Abbott said, it’s time to celebrate the country’s “bright future ahead.”
Abbot cited a federal statute requiring that the flag be displayed on Inauguration Day.
On Jan. 3, President-elect Donald Trump criticized Biden’s decision to keep flags lowered at half-staff on Inauguration Day.
“The Democrats are all ‘giddy’ about our magnificent American Flag potentially being at ‘half mast’ during my Inauguration,” he said in a Truth Social post. “They think it’s so great, and are so happy about it because, in actuality, they don’t love our Country, they only think about themselves.”
The difference between “mast” and “staff” is that mast is used for flags on ships, while staff is a term for flags on land.
For the first time during any presidential inauguration, the flags will be at half-staff, which is not what the American people want, Trump said.
“Let’s see how it plays out,” he said.
At Trump’s private Mar-a-Lago club, flags have been returned to full-staff.
Since Abbott’s order, two other Republican governors—Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds and Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey—followed suit.
“Iowa will celebrate and recognize this historic change in our country’s leadership by raising our flags,” Reynolds said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
From The Epoch Times