by WorldTribune Staff, August 25, 2025 Real World News

President Trump on Monday signed an executive order aimed at prohibiting the burning of the American flag.

“If you burn a flag, you get one year in jail — no early exits, no nothing,” Trump said in signing the order.

“And you will see flag-burning stopping immediately,” he added, claiming an action he took in his first administration to protect national monuments from being destroyed had a similar effect.

Under Trump’s order, the Department of Justice is tasked with investigating all incidents of setting the Stars and Stripes ablaze and bring charges “where prosecution wouldn’t fall afoul of the First Amendment,” White House staff secretary Will Scharf noted.

Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression Chief Counsel Bob Corn-Revere noted: “While people can be prosecuted for burning anything in a place they aren’t allowed to set fires, the government can’t prosecute protected expressive activity — even if many Americans, including the president, find it ‘uniquely offensive and provocative.’

“You don’t have to like flag burning. You can condemn it, debate it, or hoist your own flag even higher. The beauty of free speech is that you get to express your opinions, even if others don’t like what you have to say.”

The order authorizes Attorney General Pam Bondi to “vigorously prosecute those who violate our laws in ways that involve desecrating the American Flag.”

“This may include, but is not limited to, violent crimes; hate crimes, illegal discrimination against American citizens, or other violations of Americans’ civil rights; and crimes against property and the peace, as well as conspiracies and attempts to violate, and aiding and abetting others to violate, such laws,” the order states.

Under the order, Bondi, Secretary of State Marco Rubio or Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem may also terminate visas, residence permits, naturalization proceedings or other immigration benefits for foreign nationals who burn U.S. flags.

“They were burning a lot of flags in Los Angeles,” Trump told New York Post columnist Miranda Devine, referring to videos and images of rioters setting Old Glory on fire, while also waving Mexican flags.

In 1989, the Supreme Court determined in Texas vs. Johnson that incinerating the American flag was an act of “symbolic speech” with constitutional protections.

In 1990, the high court ruled in U.S. v. Eichman that flag-burning was considered free speech, striking down the federal Flag Protection Act of 1989.

Conservative Justice Antonin Scalia joined with Justice Anthony Kennedy in both high court cases to uphold Americans’ right to burn the American flag.

“If it were up to me,” Scalia said at a 2015 event during which he reflected on the Texas vs. Johnson ruling, “I would put in jail every sandal-wearing, scruffy-bearded weirdo who burns the American flag. But I am not king.”

“Through a very sad court,” Trump said Monday of the rulings, “they called it freedom of speech. When you burn the American flag, it incites riots.”

“I fully support President Trump’s executive order to crack down on flag burning and destruction,” said Wyoming Republican Sen. Cynthia Lummis.

“It deserves nothing less than our highest respect,” Lummis added. “I urge Democrats and left-wing protesters to stop this grotesque and offensive American flag burning and come together in treating the flag with the dignity and reverence it deserves.”

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  New executive order bans burning the American flag