Trump Tackles The Flag-Burning Question — DOJ To Crack Down When It Crosses The Line

A lot of people are flying off 'half-cocked' without realizing what the order actually says

Wes Walker August 25, 2025
4 347 2 minutes read

Just as the freedom of speech is not a shield against incidents of fraud, threats, or perjury, the President thinks there are instances of flag-burning that likewise fall outside the scope of free speech protection.

In the last few years, we have often seen already emotionally-charged crowds boil over into violent expression in response to the encouragement (or sometimes provocation) of setting the nation’s most prominent symbol aflame.

Trump has directed the DOJ to take incidents where a flag burning has been part of a larger pattern of lawlessness, that the flag burning itself be included in the prosecution.

In Trump’s Oval office description of the Executive Order, he referenced a statute that would invoke a single year in prison for such an act. (Full text here.)


The predictable objections from the cynics and haters have already begun. Here’s a little context for them, from social media. One describes the policy itself, the other puts it in a wider cultural context.

The policy, by one ‘Cynical Publius’ was assessed in a tweet that included the following quote:

So if you want to go burn your own flag in your own backyard, have at it.

But if you want to burn that flag amidst a violent “Death to America” rally paid for by George Soros, that’s something altogether different.

Now I am not opining on whether even that narrow interpretation will survive constitutional scrutiny.

But know this—the more of these sorts of EOs Trump signs, the more legal resources the Democrats must expend to challenge him, resources that could probably be better deployed (for their purposes) on issues essential to the Trump agenda.

What I’m trying to tell you is that this EO is a giant “SQUIRREL!” for Democrats.

Enjoy it.

As for the wider cultural significance?

When they stop destroying lives for daring to blaspheme their precious social causes, we’ll entertain their objections to incarcerating those who burn Old Glory in the commission of another crime.