PHOENIX — Arizona returned its official U.S. flags at their full height for half of the day Monday.
But they’re going back to half-staff on Tuesday.
The move follows Donald Trump, on taking office as president, issuing an order that “on this and all future Inauguration Days, the flag of the United States shall be flown at full-staff.’’
Christian Slater, press aide to Gov. Katie Hobbs, said that overrides the Dec. 29 order by now-former President Joe Biden, directing that all flags to be lowered for 30 days following the death of former President Jimmy Carter.
Slater said the only reason that his boss ignored the complaints Trump had made before he was sworn in about flags being at half-staff for his ceremony was because she was following the “protocol’’ of obeying presidential orders. And that protocol for a 30-day mourning period, goes back to orders issued in 1954 by then-President Dwight Eisenhower.
Trump, now president, has the power to override all that. And Slater said that now makes his orders the protocol for Hobbs to follow.
But the new president wrote his order in a way to ensure that the period to honor Carter is not prematurely cut short. It directs the flags to go back to half-staff position Tuesday for the balance of the 30 days.
And accordingly, Slater said, the state will follow suit.
The U.S. flag flies at full-staff Monday at the U.S. Capitol in Washington. On his first day in office, President Donald Trump issued an order that “on this and all future Inauguration Days, the flag of the United States shall be flown at full-staff.’’ Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs Monday afternoon ordered the state to do so until Tuesday.
Trump’s order, among the first five he signed on taking office, is not a surprise. Trump made it clear, even before being sworn in, he was not happy that flags would be at half-staff when he was sworn in.
“The Democrats are all ‘giddy’ about our magnificent American Flag potentially being at ‘half mast’ during my inauguration,’’ he wrote on Truth Social. “Nobody wants to see this, and no American can be happy about it.’’
Trump’s order at least partly overrides the 1954 proclamation by Eisenhower.
That spells out the flag “should fly at half-staff for 30 days at all federal buildings, grounds, and naval vessels throughout the United States and its territories and possession after the death of the president or a former president.’’
That same directive also has shorter time frames for other federal officials.
Trump’s new order does not disturb those times — unless there is an inauguration.
Presidential orders — whether Eisenhower, Biden or Trump — do not affect what individuals and businesses can do on their own property.
Even before Monday’s order, Trump himself flew the U.S. flags at Mar-a-Lago club at full staff.
