Biden to Keep US Flags at Half-Staff During Trump’s Inauguration, White House Says

The U.S. flag is lowered to half-staff in Washington on Jan. 2, 2025, following the death of former President Jimmy Carter. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

The White House said on Friday that President Joe Biden is not considering raising the Stars and Stripes to full-staff for President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration.

President Jimmy Carter died on Dec. 29 at the age of 100 in his hometown of Plains, Georgia. According to the U.S. flag code, the death of a sitting or former president is observed by flying the American flag at half-staff for 30 days from the date of death on all public buildings and grounds, military posts, naval stations, and naval vessels.

Trump will be sworn in as the 47th U.S. president on Jan. 20, which falls within the 30-day national mourning period. This would make it a rare moment for American flags to be flown at half-staff during a presidential inauguration.

The U.S. flag code is a set of rules enforced by traditions rather than laws. While Biden could theoretically order the flags to be raised for the inauguration, he has expressed no intention of doing so.

At Friday’s press briefing, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked whether Biden might reconsider “reversing or reevaluating” the decision to keep flags at half-staff for the inauguration. She replied, “No,” without elaboration.

On Friday, Trump reacted to the decision, saying that no one, except the Democrats, was happy about it.

“The Democrats are all ‘giddy’ about our magnificent American Flag potentially being at ‘half mast’ during my Inauguration. They think it’s so great, and are so happy about it because, in actuality, they don’t love our Country, they only think about themselves,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, adding that “nobody wants to see this, and no American can be happy about it.”

There have been instances of flag accommodations for significant events while the nation mourns a passing president. For instance, President Richard Nixon temporarily raised flags to full-staff on Feb. 13, 1973, to honor the return of prisoners of war from Vietnam, even though they were initially lowered for the death of his predecessor, Lyndon B. Johnson, on Jan. 22, shortly after Nixon’s second inauguration.

Carter, a Democrat whose single term in the Oval Office ran from 1977 to 1981, will receive a full state funeral in Washington on Jan. 9. Trump has said he plans to attend the funeral.

Carter will lie in state in the Capitol rotunda from the afternoon of Jan. 7 through the morning of Jan. 9. According to a schedule published by the Carter Center, a 24-hour public visitation will begin at 7 a.m. on Jan. 8.

Carter will be laid to rest in Plains beside his wife, Rosalynn.