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Despite Carter's death, Capitol flags are flying at full staff for Inauguration Day

When former president Jimmy Carter died on Dec. 29, Biden ordered flags to be flown at half-staff on federal properties for 30 days, in keeping with presidential tradition.

That's happened before: Capitol flags were flown at half-staff in honor of former President Harry Truman during the 1973 inauguration of President Richard Nixon. If that tradition continued, flags would be lowered today for Trump's inauguration.

But that's not the case in D.C. and several other states.

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, a Republican, announced last week that the flags at the Capitol "will fly at full-staff to celebrate our country coming together behind the inauguration of our 47th President, Donald Trump."

They will be lowered back to half-staff the following day, he added.

Trump had previously accused Democrats of being "giddy" about flags being at half-staff on his Inauguration Day, adding that "nobody wants to see this."

After Trump pushed back, governors of some states — from both parties — ordered flags at state buildings to fly at full-staff on Monday. Those states include Texas, Florida, Tennessee, Oklahoma, North Dakota, Nebraska, Alabama, New York, California and Colorado.

Copyright 2025 NPR

Rachel Treisman
Rachel Treisman (she/her) is a writer and editor for the Morning Edition live blog, which she helped launch in early 2021.