When Donald Trump isn’t busy making worrying cabinet picks or settling fraud cases for millions, he is tweeting his latest stream-of-consciousness style musings.
His latest floats the idea of cracking down on flag burning, saying there must be consequences for those who engage in it, perhaps even a loss of citizenship.
Nobody should be allowed to burn the American flag – if they do, there must be consequences – perhaps loss of citizenship or year in jail!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 29, 2016
When a protester held up an upside down American flag at a Trump rally in North Carolina, he was attacked by a gay Trump supporter in the crowd and admonished by the then Republican candidate, now president-elect, from stage.
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“It’s really total disrespect for the American flag,” Trump said. “Folks, that’s what’s happening to our country. That’s what’s happening. That is total disrespect for our flag. That’s what’s happening to our country. We’re gonna turn it around, folks, we’re gonna turn it around.”
The Supreme Court has ruled that flag burning is a form of speech protected by the First Amendment.
A pro-Trump campaign video released by gay provocateur and Breitbart editor Milo Yiannopoulos featured an LGBTQ pride flag burned with the aid of a lighter marked a Hillary Clinton logo. The messaging around the video was that Trump would protect the community from threats of Islamic terrorism, mirroring the president-elect’s promise to do in his Republican National Convention speech.
Would it remain legal to burn the pride flag, one wonders. Or would Milo and others who engage in that behavior get a pass?
Trump was seen holding up an upside down pride flag at a rally in Colorado, which had the words “LGBTs For Trump” crudely scrawled across it. Would such a dishonorable display as that get a pass if it was done to an American flag?
The president-elect has also shown signs of disrespect for the First Amendment in his comments about the press, and suggesting that he would “open…up” libel laws to punish those who write negative articles.
While campaigning, he revoked press credentials from the Washington Post, and threatened to do the same to The New York Times, arguing that they had been too critical in their reporting.
