Newsom joins red states in raising flags for Trump inauguration

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) will raise American flags at the California Capitol on Monday for a limited time during President-elect Trump’s inauguration, according to his office.

The decision aligns him with many of his Republican counterparts in other states, Newsom spokesperson Izzy Gardon confirmed to The Associated Press. Flags have been at half-staff across the U.S. to commemorate the Dec. 29 death of former President Carter.

The Republican governors who have made similar flag-raising declarations for Inauguration Day are Alabama’s Kay Ivey, Florida’s Ron DeSantis, Idaho’s Brad Little, Iowa’s Kim Reynolds, Nebraska’s Jim Pillen, North Dakota’s Kelly Armstrong, Tennessee’s Bill Lee and Texas’s Greg Abbott. The move goes against tradition, when flags stay at half-staff for the entirety of a 30-day mourning period following the death of a sitting or former president.

President Biden had previously ordered flags nationwide to be flown at half-staff until sunset Jan. 28, in accordance with an Eisenhower-era proclamation setting the length of the honor. Trump seemingly raised his own flags at his private Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida before the end of the mourning period.

Earlier this month, the president-elect accused Democrats of being “giddy” about “our magnificent American Flag potentially being at ‘half mast’ during my Inauguration.”

“They think it’s so great, and are so happy about it because, in actuality, they don’t love our Country, they only think about themselves,” he wrote at the time on Truth Social.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) also announced Tuesday that flags will fly full-staff at the U.S. Capitol for the inauguration, with the flags being lowered back to half-staff later on.

The Hill has reached out to Newsom’s press office for comment.