Fact Check: Flags Will Be at Full Height — Not Half-Staff — During Trump's Inauguration
Claim:
U.S. flags at the Capitol will fly at half-staff for President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration on Jan. 20, 2025, due to the death of former President Jimmy Carter.
Rating:
Context:
On Jan. 14, 2025, House Speaker Mike Johnson announced flags at the Capitol will be heightened on Inauguration Day, pausing a 30-day proclamation to have them at half-staff in honor of Carter.
The death of former U.S. President Jimmy Carter in late 2024 prompted social media users and Snopes readers to ask whether flags would fly at half-staff to honor him during President-elect Donald Trump's swearing-in ceremony at the U.S. Capitol.
Trump himself reportedly complained about the possibility of lower flags during inauguration events on Jan. 20, 2025, claiming on Truth Social (archived) that "Democrats are all 'giddy' about our magnificent American Flag potentially being at 'half mast' during my Inauguration." As the day neared, Republican governors from several states, such as Florida (archived), Alabama and Texas (archived), ordered flags in their states to fly at full height to mark Trump's start to his second presidential term.
Then, on Jan. 14, House Speaker Mike Johnson said (archived) flags at the Capitol would fly at full-staff on Inauguration Day. The flags will be lowered back to half-staff the following day, Johnson wrote. Given Johnson's order, we rate this claim as false.
(X user @SpeakerJohnson)
The order followed a proclamation by President Joe Biden stating that U.S. flags on all public buildings would be flown at half-staff for 30 days after Carter's death.
Biden's directive, issued on the same day as Carter's death, read in part (emphasis ours):
NOW, THEREFORE, I, JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR., President of the United States of America, by the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, in honor and tribute to the memory of President James Earl Carter, Jr., and as an expression of public sorrow, do hereby direct that the flag of the United States be displayed at half-staff at the White House and on all public buildings and grounds, at all military posts and naval stations, and on all naval vessels of the Federal Government in the District of Columbia and throughout the United States and its Territories and possessions for a period of 30 days from the day of his death. I also direct that, for the same length of time, the representatives of the United States in foreign countries shall make similar arrangements for the display of the flag at half‑staff over their embassies, legations, consular offices, and other facilities abroad, including all military facilities and naval vessels and stations.
Before Johnson's order, flags at the Capitol were set to be at half-staff on the day of Trump's inauguration. That was because Carter died on Dec. 29, and the half-staff proclamation lasts until Jan. 28, 2025. For that reason, we previously rated (archived) the claim true.
Also before Johnson's announcement, Snopes reached out to the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies for its policy on U.S. flags at the Jan. 20 inauguration. We will update this article if we receive a reply.
According to The American Presidency Project at the University of California, Santa Barbara, former President Dwight D. Eisenhower was the first president to regularize the 30-day half-staff procedure following presidential deaths. This was seen in Proclamation 3044, issued in 1954.
Sources:
Executive Order [on the Deaths of Thomas Jefferson and John Adams] | The American Presidency Project. https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/executive-order-the-deaths-thomas-jefferson-and-john-adams#:~:text=Tuesday%20succeeding%20the,at%20half%2Dmast. Accessed 30 Dec. 2024.
@GovernorKayIvey. "I Am Directing Flags Be Returned to Full Staff on the Grounds of the Alabama State Capitol and All State Buildings January 20, for Inauguration Day." X, 13 Jan. 2025, https://x.com/GovernorKayIvey/status/1878940382953922763.
@GovRonDeSantis. "Flags in Florida Will Fly at Full-Staff for Inauguration Day." X, 14 Jan. 2025, https://x.com/GovRonDeSantis/status/1879284102173700312/photo/1.
@GregAbbott_TX. "Inauguration Day Is a Day of Celebration for America." X, 13 Jan. 2025, https://x.com/GregAbbott_TX/status/1878826334396580075.
Johnson, Mike. "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. ." X, 14 Jan. 2025, https://x.com/SpeakerJohnson/status/1879195077446389850.
Presidential Orders upon the Death of a President | The American Presidency Project. https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/analyses/presidential-orders-upon-the-death-president. Accessed 30 Dec. 2024.
"Proclamations." National Archives, 15 Aug. 2016, https://www.archives.gov/federal-register/codification/proclamations/03044.html.
The White House. "Proclamation Announcing the Death of James Earl Carter, Jr." The White House, 30 Dec. 2024, https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2024/12/29/proclamation-announcing-the-death-of-james-earl-carter-jr/.
Trump, Donald J. "The Democrats Are All 'Giddy' about Our Magnificent American Flag Potentially Being at 'Half Mast' during My Inauguration." Truth Social, https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/113765847370756395. Accessed 16 Jan. 2025.
