Camera One: “When you burn the American Flag, you’re not making a statement — you’re inciting chaos. It’s not ‘free speech,’ it’s a provocation. One year in jail, NO exceptions.” That’s US president Donald Trump, talking to reporters about his executive order on flag-burning.
Camera Two: “In cases where the Department of Justice or another executive department or agency (agency) determines that an instance of American Flag desecration may violate an applicable State or local law, such as open burning restrictions, disorderly conduct laws, or destruction of property laws, the agency shall refer the matter to the appropriate State or local authority for potential action.” That’s from the actual executive order.
In other words, Trump isn’t REALLY claiming the ability to unilaterally, and formally, repeal the First Amendment, as he sometimes does.
He’s just throwing a public “find something else to charge them with!” tantrum, presumably by way of distracting attention from the ongoing inquiries into his long, close personal association with the late sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein, his embarrassment at still failing to deliver on his “first day in office” promise of ending the war in Ukraine, the bad economic news associated with his idiotic trade and tariff policies, etc.
Dog bites man story? Well, yeah.
But free speech is always worth defending, even when an attack on it is indirect and pretextual.
Yes, free speech, or at least “expressive conduct.” It’s not just me saying that, it’s the US Supreme Court in Texas v. Johnson (1989):
“Johnson’s conviction for flag desecration is inconsistent with the First Amendment. Johnson’s burning of the flag constituted expressive conduct, permitting him to invoke the First Amendment.”
Property rights are also worth defending. If you burn someone else’s flag without permission, that’s theft and destruction of property. If you burn a flag you own, well, you own it and you’re entitled by right to do anything with it you darn well please, so long as you don’t damage other people or other people’s property.
And by “damage other people,” I don’t mean “hurt someone’s feelings.”
According to Trump, “[o]ur great American Flag is the most sacred and cherished symbol of the United States of America, and of American freedom.”
Whether something is “sacred” is a matter of opinion. Whether you “cherish” the flag, or don’t, is entirely up to you to decide.
As for Trump, he routinely — if metaphorically — defecates on everything he claims the flag stands for, then wipes his posterior with it … while also wrapping himself in it. Sorry not sorry if you have trouble un-seeing THAT image. I hope it lives rent-free in your brain for years.
I’m not generally inclined toward flag-burning, if for no other reason than that I have relatives who “cherished” it, considered it “sacred,” and had it draped over their coffins, folded, and presented to their loved ones when they died.
But Trump’s latest attempt to use the flag as, essentially, kitty litter to cover up his messes, tempts me to a “smoke’em if you got’em” attitude.
Thomas L. Knapp (X: @thomaslknapp | Bluesky: @knappster.bsky.social | Mastodon: @knappster) is director and senior news analyst at the William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism (thegarrisoncenter.org). He lives and works in north central Florida.
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