President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Aug. 25 aimed at punishing individuals who burn the American flag, despite longstanding Supreme Court rulings that the act is protected under the First Amendment.
The order directs federal authorities to pursue cases in which flag burning is tied to violence or rioting, Trump said.
“If you burn a flag, you get one year in jail,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, though the order itself does not explicitly call for jail time. “You will see flag burning stop immediately.”
The Supreme Court has consistently upheld that burning the flag is a form of political expression. In 1989, the court ruled 5-4 that flag burning, by itself, is protected speech under the First Amendment.
Bob Corn-Revere, chief counsel of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, emphasized that “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.
Attorney General Pam Bondi defended the executive order, saying prosecutions could move forward without conflicting with constitutional protections.
“We will do that without running afoul of the First Amendment,” Bondi said.
The order points to exceptions in Supreme Court rulings, noting that “fighting words” or incitement to lawless action are not protected by the First Amendment.
“When you burn the flag, the area goes crazy,” Trump argued. “When you burn the American flag, it incites riots.”
The announcement comes during a period of national celebrations leading up to the United States’ 250th birthday on July 4, 2026. Trump had previously raised the idea during a June 10 visit to Fort Bragg in North Carolina for the 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, referencing sometimes violent protests in Los Angeles over immigration enforcement.
Trump has made similar calls before, including at a 2020 campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He has also been photographed embracing the flag at political events, most memorably at the Conservative Political Action Conference in 2019.
Flag burning has occasionally occurred at protests in front of the White House, including in 2019.
