Flag burning has a long history in the U.S. — and legal protections from the Supreme Court

Joe Hernandez

August 27, 2025 / 2:00 am

President Trump has long opposed flag burning as a form of protest, and now he's directing the Justice Department to prioritize prosecutions of people who set the American flag on fire.

On Monday, Trump signed an executive order instructing the attorney general to pursue cases against people who "incite violence or otherwise violate our laws while desecrating this symbol of our country."

When Trump signed the order, he said that there are a slew of ways people can protest the government. "But when you burn the American flag, it incites riots at levels that we've never seen before. People go crazy," he said.

Free speech attorneys note that th

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