Seeing an American flag burn is a sign our republic still stands | Opinion
Burning the American flag is a uniquely American act, especially when those in power don’t want you to — particularly when those in power are undermining democracy at every turn.
President Donald Trump has found another way to pretend to love this country in ways others don’t while revealing the bankruptcy of his definition of America: He signed yet another executive order, this time purportedly making flag burning punishable by a year in prison.
“If you burn a flag, you get one year in jail, no early exits, no nothing,” he said.
The order itself isn’t nearly that clear. It’s poppycock, making it hard to tell if flag burning could lead to prison by itself and under any circumstance, or only if it accompanies illegal acts. It’s likely the latter, given that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1989 that flag burning is protected by the First Amendment.
Besides that, Trump can’t make new law via executive order, though he can force his Department of Justice to conjure up ways to punish those who burn the flag.
I have never burned an American flag, and I don’t have any plans to do so. But the last people who should decide if I could are government officials who incited a violent insurrection against this country.
The man who pardoned everyone involved in that violent insurrection — including those who assaulted police officers, destroyed public property, and committed violent acts before or since Jan. 6, 2021, has no business dictating how others should honor this country.
The man whose administration has routinely denied due process to immigrants properly submitting themselves to our legal system has no standing to decree how Americans should act.
He has turned the U.S. military against Americans who refuse to bend a knee to his ideological predilections. He has dismissed faithful, long-serving American soldiers from the military because they are transgender, punishing them for being themselves, despite their service.
He has made it nearly impossible to hold federal law enforcement officials to account no matter how or how often they undermine the rule of law while supposedly enacting it. He’s sending armed, masked, unidentifiable men to snatch people off the streets and throw them into unarmed vans as though this is the former Soviet Union.
He has spent the past five years eroding democracy by spreading lies about voting and his loss in the 2020 presidential election. Yes, he lost to Joe Biden. The results of that election are not in doubt, even though he and his sycophants keep insisting otherwise.
Trump has even been spending time damaging the country’s economic engine, capitalism, the thing that turned the country into a superpower. He didn’t like weak jobs report numbers, so he fired the person in charge of pulling them together. He doesn’t like that the Federal Reserve hasn’t begun lowering interest rates, so he’s threatened to fire Fed officials who’ve decided to remain independent despite his pressure campaign.
When Colin Kapernick decided to kneel during the playing of the national anthem before National Football League games, Trump was among the loudest voices demeaning him. Because Trump wants to be king. Now, he may believe he is.
Trump’s flag burning executive order is part of American tradition, the kind we should be ashamed of and never want to repeat. We’ve had presidents and other government officials use their platforms and power to enslave people, to imprison the innocent, to scare off activists by raiding their homes, to demand that fellow Americans say only what’s government-approved.
Of course that’s why a man like Trump wants to criminalize this act. Because he doesn’t want Americans to be independent. He wants Americans to adhere to his whims and dictates.
But that’s why flag burning has been with us for decades, used even by soldiers willing to sacrifice their lives for this country. It represents defiance, an independent streak that those who truly love this country should never want extinguished.
Seeing an American flag burn and being unable to stop it isn’t a sign that this democratic republic is in trouble. It’s a sign that it still stands.
Issac J. Bailey is a McClatchy opinion writer in North Carolina and South Carolina.
This story was originally published August 28, 2025 at 2:00 AM with the headline "Seeing an American flag burn is a sign our republic still stands | Opinion."