Trump flies U.S. flag at full-staff well before Jimmy Carter mourning period ends

Brian Niemietz, New York Daily News on Jan 13, 2025

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The American flag over President-elect Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate was flying at full-staff Monday despite government buildings keeping theirs at half-staff in observation of former President Jimmy Carter’s death.

Carter, the nation’s 39th President, died Dec. 29 and was buried in his hometown of Plains, Ga., last week. President Biden ordered a 30-day mourning period for the Democrat, who lived to be 100 years old. That means flags will be at half-staff when Trump is inaugurated Jan. 20.

The president-elect has expressed frustration that his day of celebration will coincide with the mourning of a former president.

“The Democrats are all ‘giddy’ about our magnificent American Flag potentially being at ‘half mast’ during my Inauguration,” he posted to social media Jan. 3. “Nobody wants to see this, and no American can be happy about it. Let’s see how it plays out.”

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced Monday that he, too, is ready to take a break from mourning Carter to begin celebrating Trump.

“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,” the Republican governor said in a statement

Flying flags at half-staff for 30 days after a president dies is U.S. policy, though there are no clear consequences for breaking with that tradition. Flags are lowered for 10 days to mourn the death of a vice president, speaker of the House and an active or retired Supreme Court chief justice.

Carter served a single term in the White House before leaving office in 1981. No U.S. president lived longer. All five living presidents attended his funeral in Washington on Thursday. They are Trump, Biden, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.

Details for Trump’s inauguration continued to take shape Monday with musicians Carrie Underwood and the Village People announcing they’ll sing for the 47th president.

“We know this won’t make some of you happy to hear however we believe that music is to be performed without regard to politics,” the Village People posted on Facebook.

Their 1978 song “YMCA” frequently plays at Trump events. The president-elect told podcasters the Nelk Boys in 2022 that’s one of the songs he plays when hosting parties at Mar-a-Lago.

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