Following Texas’ lead, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey on Monday announced that she would also order her state’s flags to be flown at “full-staff” when President-elect Donald Trump is inaugurated as the country's 47th president next week.
Ivey’s directive comes just days before Trump is set to return to the Oval Office and is in direct defiance of Joe Biden’s presidential order following the death of former Democratic President Jimmy Carter.
The 30-day national mourning period that began Dec. 29 was set to run through Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20 – but is colliding with Republicans eager to curry favor with the incoming administration.
“I am directing flags be returned to full staff on the grounds of the Alabama State Capitol and all state buildings January 20, for Inauguration Day,” Ivey, the far-right Alabama governor, said Monday on X. “Tuesday, January 21, all flags will, once again, fly at half-staff to resume the 30-day period of mourning for President Carter.”
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Ivey issued her directive in the form of a letter addressed to all Alabama state agencies on Monday. In it, she cited a federal law that she said “enumerates times and occasions for display of the U.S. flag, including Inauguration Day, January 20.”
“Accordingly, flags at state buildings in Alabama should be raised to full staff on Monday, January 20, 2025 to honor the inauguration of the new president,” Ivey wrote in her letter.
The decision from Trump allies in Texas and now Alabama to re-raise their state flags comes seven years after the Trump White House prematurely re-raised its flag following the death of Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), whose relationship with the incoming president remained fraught until his August 2018 death of brain cancer.
Trump’s second inauguration will be one of the few in American history to coincide with Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Politico reported. It follows the 1997 inauguration of former President Bill Clinton and the 2013 ceremony for former President Barack Obama, both of which were also held on the federal holiday, according to the report.