Trump Signs Order to Jail Flag Burners

President Donald Trump signed an executive order Aug. 25 seeking to penalize people who burn flags.

The order aims to prosecute people who burn flags associated with other violence, such as inciting a riot, Trump said.

"If you burn a flag, you get one year in jail," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, although the order doesn't specify a jail sentence. "You will see flag burning stop immediately."

The First Amendment protects speech and peaceful protest. The Supreme Court in 1989 ruled in a 5-4 decision that burning a flag itself is a form of political expression and isn't illegal.

Bob Corn-Revere, the chief counsel of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, said "flag burning as a form of political protest is protected by the First Amendment" even if Trump finds it "uniquely offensive and provocative."

"President Trump may believe he has the power to revise the First Amendment with the stroke of a pen, but he doesn’t," Corn-Revere said.

But Attorney General Pam Bondi said Trump's goal of prosecuting flag-burning could be accomplished without violating the high court's decision.

"We will do that without running afoul of the First Amendment," Bondi said.

The executive order focuses on a provision in the Supreme Court decisions that Trump argued said "fighting words" or inciting lawless action aren't protected by the First Amendment.

“What happens when you burn the flag, the area goes crazy," Trump said. “When you burn the American flag, it incites riots."

Trump's order comes amid a year of celebration leading to the country’s 250th birthday on July 4, 2026. Trump mentioned seeking a penalty for flag burning while visiting Fort Bragg in North Carolina on June 10 as part of the U.S. Army's 250th anniversary.

“People that burn the American flag should go to jail for one year, that's what they should be doing, one year,” Trump said after sometimes violent protests in Los Angeles against immigration enforcement.

Trump has previously called for a one-year penalty for flag-burning, including during a rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in June 2020, during the presidential campaign. He was photographed hugging a flag at the Conservative Political Action Conference in March 2019.

Flags are occasionally burned during protests in front of the White House, including in 2019.