Democratic governor of California Gavin Newsom will temporarily raise the American flag at the state Capitol to full height on Inauguration Day next week, joining several Republican governors and Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson in the decision.
Newsom’s press office confirmed the decision to Fox News Digital on Wednesday night.
Following tradition, flags at the US Capitol and state buildings across the country are flying at half-staff for the death of former President Jimmy Carter on December 29, 2024.
Flags temporarily flown at full height will return to half-staff on January 21 until the end of the 30-day mourning period, which ends on January 28 – eight days after President-elect Donald Trump is sworn in.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom has ordered flags at the state Capitol to be temporarily flown at full staff on Jan. 20 for the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump. (Getty/AP)
As of Thursday morning, Newsom is the only Democratic governor to issue the directive, which comes as southern California is devastated catastrophic forest fires.
Similar decisions have been made recently by Idaho Gov. Brad Little, North Dakota Gov. Kelly Armstrong, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott – all of whom are Republicans.
House Speaker Johnson also ordered flags on the US Capitol to fly at full staff Trump’s inauguration on January 20.
Trump criticized the possibility of flying the flag at half-staff his inauguration after Carter’s death.
Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson also ordered the flag on the US Capitol to be temporarily flown at full staff for Trump’s inauguration. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
“Democrats are all ‘giddy’ over the prospect of our magnificent American flag being ‘half-staffed’ during my inauguration,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Jan. 3. “They think it’s so great, and they’re so happy about it because, They don’t really love our country, they only care about themselves.”
“Look at what they’ve done to our once GREAT America in the past four years – It’s a total mess! Anyway, because of the death of President Jimmy Carter, the flag can, for the first time ever, fly at half-mast during the inauguration of a future president,” he continued. . “No one wants to see this and no American can be happy about it. Let’s see how it plays out. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
President-elect Trump has criticized the possibility of the flag flying at half-staff during his inauguration on January 20 despite it falling during the 30-day mourning period following the death of former President Jimmy Carter. (Donald Trump/Truth Social)
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Flags were flown at half-staff when former President Nixon was sworn in for his second term in 1973 after Nixon ordered the flags to be lowered after the death of former President Truman.
Fox News Digital’s Landon Mion contributed to this report.
