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| - Following the death of former U.S. President Jimmy Carter on Dec. 29, 2024, posts online claimed that flags would have to fly at half-staff during President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration on Jan. 20, 2025.
One X post (archived) making such a claim read: "One last gift from Jimmy Carter, all flags will be at half-staff on Inauguration Day." Other examples of the rumor appeared on Facebook (archived) and Reddit (archived).
(X user @nick_field90)
In short, President Joe Biden did issue a proclamation stating that U.S. flags on all public buildings would be flown at half-staff for 30 days after Carter's death. Therefore, we have rated this claim as true.
Biden's directive, issued on the same day as Carter's death, read in part (emphasis ours):
NOW, THEREFORE, I, JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR., President of the United States of America, by the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, in honor and tribute to the memory of President James Earl Carter, Jr., and as an expression of public sorrow, do hereby direct that the flag of the United States be displayed at half-staff at the White House and on all public buildings and grounds, at all military posts and naval stations, and on all naval vessels of the Federal Government in the District of Columbia and throughout the United States and its Territories and possessions for a period of 30 days from the day of his death. I also direct that, for the same length of time, the representatives of the United States in foreign countries shall make similar arrangements for the display of the flag at half‑staff over their embassies, legations, consular offices, and other facilities abroad, including all military facilities and naval vessels and stations.
Given that Carter died on Dec. 29, all U.S. flags on public buildings must remain at half-staff until Jan. 28, 2025. This will include those at the Capitol, a public building, where Trump's inauguration taking place.
Snopes has reached out to the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies for its policy on U.S. flags at the Jan. 20 inauguration. We will update this article if we receive a reply.
According to The American Presidency Project at the University of California, Santa Barbara, former President Dwight D. Eisenhower was the first president to regularize the 30-day half-staff procedure following presidential deaths. This was seen in Proclamation 3044, issued in 1954.
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