Why are US flags being flown at half-staff on Inauguration Day?
The U.S. flag code lays out parameters for lowering the U.S. flag to half-staff, including a 30-day period for current or former presidents to cover flags at federal government buildings and their grounds.
By Meg Kinnard | The Associated Press ••
Photo by ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP via Getty Images
A U.S. flag, flying half-staff in remembrance of late former US President Jimmy Carter, flutters near the dome of the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, DC, on January 2, 2025.
President-elect Donald Trump has expressed frustration that flags will be flying at half-staff when he takes office later this month.
It's an action put in place by President Joe Biden to honor the late President Jimmy Carter, who died Sunday at 100. It's not a timeline that Trump can do anything about — until after he takes office.
On Sunday, Biden ordered that U.S. flags be flown at half-staff in honor of the late former president. It's an honor that indicates that the country or a state is in mourning.
The U.S. flag code lays out parameters for lowering the U.S. flag to half-staff, including a 30-day period for current or former presidents to cover flags at federal government buildings and their grounds, as well as at U.S. embassies and other facilities abroad, including military installations and vessels.
Flags can be lowered to commemorate the deaths of other officials, including the vice president, Supreme Court justices and members of Congress, although those periods aren’t as long.
Flags can also be ordered lowered in other circumstances, including a national tragedy or on Memorial Day.
Since U.S. flag code states that no flag should fly higher than the American flag on the same pole or nearby, state flags get lowered during those periods, too.
According to Biden's proclamation, U.S. flags will be lowered for 30 days from Carter's death, until Jan. 28.
With the inauguration on Jan. 20, that means that flags will be at half-staff when Trump takes office and for the first week of his administration.
Who decides when to lower flags?
According to the U.S. General Services Administration, the president, a governor and the mayor of the District of Columbia can order U.S. flags to be flown at half-staff.
What has Trump said about flags being lowered?
On Friday, Trump posted on social media that “Democrats are all ‘giddy’” about the notion that flags will be lowered when he takes office as president.
“Nobody wants to see this,” Trump wrote. He added that “no American can be happy about it. Let’s see how it plays out. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
Asked about Trump’s post at Friday's briefing, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Biden would not consider reversing or reevaluating the half-staff plans.
Can Trump decide to raise the flags?
Yes. U.S. flag code dictates that flags remain lowered for the 30-day period from the death of a former president. But that code isn't mandatory, so once he becomes president, Trump could technically override it.
That's what happened in February 1973, when then-President Richard Nixon opted to raise flags — which he had ordered lowered in mourning following the death of former President Lyndon Johnson — before the 30-day mark to honor the first American prisoners of war released from Vietnam. The hiatus only lasted a day, and flags went back to half-staff thereafter for eight days.
Flags had also been at half-staff when Nixon was sworn in for his second term in January 1973, due to Nixon having ordered them lowered after the death of former President Harry S. Truman.
Has Trump taken issue with lowering flags before?
Yes. After the death of Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain — with whom Trump had a fractious relationship — in 2018, the Stars and Stripes were briefly lowered to half-staff over the weekend but went back up to full height the following Monday, while flags at the U.S. Capitol and elsewhere stayed at half-staff.
The flag was lowered again to half-staff after complaints from people in both the Republican and Democratic parties. Former presidents spoke at McCain’s funeral, but the senator’s family made clear they did not want Trump to attend.
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Kinnard reported from Chapin, South Carolina, and can be reached at http://twitter.com/MegKinnardAP
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James Earl “Jimmy” Carter, Jr., seen at seven years of age in 1932, in his hometown of Plains, Georgia.
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Georgia State Sen. Jimmy Carter hugs his wife, Rosalynn, at his Atlanta campaign headquarters, Sept. 15, 1966. The state senator would eventually become Governor of Georgia, then, President of the United States.
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Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jimmy Carter casts his vote in Plains, Georgia’s, first joint primary, Sept. 9, 1970.
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Jimmy Carter, the new Governor of Georgia, shown at his desk in Atlanta, Feb. 19, 1971.
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Georgia Gov. Jimmy Carter signs a Georgia Senate House resolution opposing forced busing to achieve integration in the classrooms of the United States, Feb. 25, 1972. The resolution asks Congress to call a constitutional convention for the purpose of proposing an antibusing amendment.
Former Georgia Gov. Jimmy Carter announces his qualification for federal matching funds to help finance his campaign for the 1976 Democratic presidential nomination, Aug. 14, 1975, in Washington, D.C.
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Former Georgia Gov. Jimmy Carter, right, with a crowd of 5,000 people at Youngstown’s Federal Plaza in Youngstown, Ohio, in his quest for support in Tuesday’s Ohio Democratic primary, June 7, 1976.
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Democratic presidential candidate Jimmy Carter gives an informal press conference in Los Angeles during a campaign tour through the West and Midwest, Aug. 23, 1976.
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Jimmy Carter stands in a large mound of peanuts at the Carter Peanut Warehouse in Plains, Georgia, Sept. 22, 1976.
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President-elect Jimmy Carter leans over to shake hands with some of the people riding the “Peanut Special” to Washington D.C., Jan. 19, 1977. They will travel all night, arriving in Washington in time for Carter’s inauguration as President the day after.
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Jimmy Carter takes the oath of office as the nation’s 39th president during inauguration ceremonies in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 20, 1977. Carter’s wife, Rosalynn, holds the Bible used in the first inauguration by George Washington as U.S. Chief Justice Warren Burger administers the oath. Looking on at left are, Happy Rockefeller, Betty Ford, Joan Mondale, Amy Carter and outgoing President Gerald Ford. Behind Carter is Vice President Walter Mondale. At far right is former Vice President Nelson Rockefeller.
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President Jimmy Carter waves to the crowd while walking with his wife, Rosalynn, and their daughter, Amy, along Pennsylvania Avenue from the Capitol to the White House following his inauguration in Washington, Jan. 20, 1977.
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President Jimmy Carter and first lady Rosalynn Carter stand with Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and his wife Margaret, at the White House in Washington, Feb. 21, 1977. Carter hosted a State Dinner for the visiting Canadian leader.
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President Jimmy Carter, right, and Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II are photographed in 1977 with French President Valery Giscard d’Estaing, at Buckingham Palace in London.
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Left to right: Pierre Trudeau, Prince Charles, Princess Margaret, Takeo Fukuda, James Callaghan, Valery Giscard d’Estaing, Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Philip, Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, President Jimmy Carter, Giulio Andreotti, Helmut Schmidt converge as part of the 1977 G7 meeting.
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Jimmy Carter and family celebrate Christmas at home, Dec. 25, 1978.
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President Jimmy Carter rides with Chancellor Helmut Schmidt on a visit to West Germany in 1978 during a review of United States Forces at a base near Frankfurt.
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Demonstrators burn an American flag, Nov. 9, 1979, atop the wall of the U.S. Embassy where American hostages have been held since Nov. 4. The Iranian hostage crisis, which ended in failure for Carter, was one of the reasons why he lost his reelection bid to Ronald Reagan.
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David Roeder shouts and waves as he and others arrive at Rhein-Main U.S. Air Force base in Frankfurt, West Germany from Algeria on Jan. 21, 1981. He was among 52 Americans held hostage in Iran for 444 days after their capture at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. The crisis was one of the defining moments of Carter’s presidency that led to the loss of his reelection bid for the White House.
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President Bill Clinton presents former President Jimmy Carter, right, with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, during a ceremony at the Carter Center in Atlanta Monday, Aug. 9, 1999.
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Former President Jimmy Carter receives the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo City Hall, Norway on Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2002. He became the only man to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for work done after his time in office.
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Former President Jimmy Carter poses for a portrait during the Toronto International Film Festival in Toronto, Monday, Sept. 10, 2007.
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President-elect Barack Obama is welcomed by President George W. Bush for a meeting at the White House in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2009, with former presidents George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter.
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Former President Jimmy Carter signs his name in the guest book at the Jewish Community center in Havana, Cuba, March 28, 2011. Carter arrived in Cuba to discuss economic policies and ways to improve Washington-Havana relations, which were more tense than usual over the imprisonment of Alan Gross, a U.S. contractor, on the island.
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Former President Jimmy Carter, left, and his wife, Rosalynn Carter, work at a Habitat for Humanity building site Monday, Nov. 2, 2015, in Memphis, Tenn. Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, have volunteered a week of their time annually to Habitat for Humanity since 1984, events dubbed “Carter work projects” that draw thousands of volunteers.
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Former President Jimmy Carter, right, works at a Habitat for Humanity building project Monday, Oct. 7, 2019, in Nashville, Tenn. Carter wears a bandage after a fall the day before at his home in Plains, Georgia.
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President Joe Biden (far right) and first lady Jill Biden (far left) visit former President Jimmy Carter and former first lady Rosalynn Carter, May 3, 2021, in Plains, Georgia.
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Former President Jimmy Carter and his wife, former first lady Rosalynn Carter, celebrate their 75th wedding anniversary, July 10, 2021, in Plains, Georgia.
