FILE PHOTO: Composer and lyricist Dolly Parton attends the party following the opening night of "9 to 5: The Musical" in Los Angeles September 20, 2008. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni (UNITED STATES)/File Photo
President Donald Trump answered a question about honoring Dolly Parton by telling a radio audience the late country music star had liked him personally.
Trump appeared on the Glenn Beck Show on Wednesday, where the conservative radio host asked the president why he had lowered the nation's flags for a singer. Parton died Tuesday at 80, and Trump ordered American flags to half-staff that evening in a post on Truth Social, The Hill reported.
"And for the first time in history, you said we should lower our flags, and you declared that our flags should be at half-staff," Beck said. "That's never been done before. Why'd you do it for her?"
"Never," Trump replied. We've done this, you know, lowering, but as I understand it — I've heard that from a couple of people. I'm a little surprised."
Flags will remain lowered until sunset on Sept. 1, a weeklong tribute that Newsweek noted is longer than the mourning periods Trump ordered for close allies, including the late Sen. Lindsey Graham and activist Charlie Kirk.
"I mean, she was amazing," Trump continued of Parton. "And to lose her, it's like you lose a member of the family. You know, we all knew her so well. I knew her a little bit."
"She wasn't a very political person. She really liked me, I will tell you," Trump insisted.
Parton spent her career refusing to take political sides, Newsweek reported, telling audiences she had as many Republican fans as Democratic ones.
She turned down the Presidential Medal of Freedom three times, according to NewsNation, declining the honor twice during Trump's first term and once under former President Joe Biden.
"I liked her a lot, and I thought it was a natural thing to lower the flags," Trump told Beck.