Florida’s DeSantis puts politics over tradition with flag order to appease Trump | Opinion

In another move that seems squarely aimed at regaining political favor with President-elect Donald Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has ordered flags to fly at full staff on Inauguration Day, breaking with American tradition and presidential proclamations after the death of a president or former president.

DeSantis isn’t alone. The governors of at least eight other states also have said they’ll fly flags at full staff for the inauguration rather than half-staff to mourn former President Jimmy Carter, who died last month. All but one of the half-staff states have Republican governors; Democrat Gavin Newsom of California joined the group.

Sadly, it seems the long tradition of honoring a president in death is being sacrificed to politics.

Back in 1954, President Dwight Eisenhower signed a proclamation that outlines the way the country displays the American flag upon the deaths of certain officials, including presidents. Federal statute says it, too: Flags shall be flown at half-staff for 30 days upon the death of a president or former president.

After Carter’s death last month, President Biden issued the usual proclamation: 30 days of flags at half-staff. But Trump was publicly upset about the prospect of flags flying at half-mast during his inauguration, which overlaps with the official mourning period for Carter’s death.

“Nobody wants to see this, and no American can be happy about it,” Trump fumed on Truth Social.

In response, U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson announced a temporary suspension of the protocol, allowing flags to be raised to full staff for the day of Trump’s inauguration, though there is no requirement for flags to be at full-staff on Inauguration Day.

In Florida, DeSantis did the same thing. Flags will return to half-staff the day after the inauguration.

That’s the decent thing to do — returning the flags to half-staff after a day — but America has been in this situation before and it didn’t result in an on-again, off-again mourning period. In 1973, during President Richard Nixon’s inauguration, flags remained at half-staff to honor former President Harry Truman, who had died just 25 days earlier. The nation, it seems, can both honor its past leaders and welcome new ones without bending tradition for political convenience.

DeSantis’s flag order calls Inauguration Day “an important tradition of our Republic where Americans come together to celebrate the peaceful transition of power between presidents.”

But why does the Inauguration Day tradition carry more weight than acknowledging the passing of a former president? Regardless of political party, Carter’s service to our nation is deserving of recognition and shouldn’t be cast aside to preserve the incoming president’s ego.

There will be plenty to do that already — three days of events that include at least three different inaugural balls, a parade, fireworks, a tea and a “MAGA Victory Rally,” to name a few of the scheduled events.

DeSantis’s decision to break from established protocol and tradition to honor Trump’s inauguration seems less about honoring a transition of peaceful transfer of power and more about signaling loyalty to Trump — though he should remember that’s usually a one-way street.

This isn’t the first time DeSantis has politicized flag protocol. When conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh died in 2021, DeSantis ordered the flags to fly at half-staff, a move widely seen as catering to his political base.

At a time when unity among Americans is paramount, adherence to tradition could have sent a message about honoring our past while embracing the future. Instead, DeSantis and others have turned simple protocol into yet another battleground for partisan division.

The biggest question is, would DeSantis issue the same order if the former president we were honoring was a Republican? By prioritizing loyalty over longstanding tradition, DeSantis is reinforcing the idea that we are a country divided.

As Jan. 20 approaches, the nation’s flagpoles will serve as visible indicators of how different leaders choose to balance tradition with political loyalties.

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This story was originally published January 17, 2025 at 2:38 PM.