President-elect Donald Trump on Friday slammed Democrats for being “giddy” that American flags are set to fly at half-mast during his inauguration in honor of the late former President Jimmy Carter.
Following Carter’s death last week, President Joe Biden issued a proclamation that all U.S. flags be displayed at half-staff at the White House and public buildings for 30 days — customary for a president’s death since 1954 — which overlaps with Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration.
“Nobody wants to see this, and no American can be happy about it,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Let’s see how it plays out.”
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Friday the White House won’t reconsider keeping the flags at half-mast during the inauguration.
Trump and Carter had a publicly contentious relationship before the 100-year-old Democratic former president’s death. Carter called Trump’s first term “a disaster” and said he hoped he would live long enough to cast his ballot for Vice President Kamala Harris. Trump was critical of Carter during his first term in the White House and on the campaign trail but said last week after Carter’s death that “he did everything in his power to improve the lives of all Americans.”
But Trump also cares deeply about pomp and circumstance — including at his inaugurations. One of the first controversies of Trump’s first term erupted after Kellyanne Conway said then-White House press secretary Sean Spicer had used “alternative facts” when claiming his 2017 inauguration had the “largest audience” of any inauguration ever.
