Trump faces flag quandary: When should it be lowered to half-staff?

WASHINGTON – Of all the weighty decisions a president makes, signing a proclamation to lower flags to half-staff is practically inconsequential and yet symbolically powerful.

It’s done to mark national tragedies such as the passing of former presidents, the loss of service members or – increasingly – the far-too-common phenomenon of mass shootings.

So in declining on Monday to issue a proclamation lowering flags to halfstaff for the victims of a newsroom shooting in Maryland last week, President Donald Trump drew criticism from those who saw a lost opportunity to unite the nation.

“Shame, shame, Mr. President,” former Democratic National Committee chairwoman Donna Brazille said on Twitter.

“Is there a cutoff for tragedy?” Annapolis Mayor Gavin Buckley told the Capital Gazette, the same newspaper where a shooter killed five staff members last week. “This was an attack on the press. It was an attack on freedom of speech. It’s just as important as any other tragedy.”

Following the criticism, the president on Tuesday ordered the flags lowered to honor the shooting victims.

“Our nation shares the sorrow of those affected by the shooting at the Capital Gazette newspaper in Annapolis, Maryland,” Trump said in the proclamation. “Americans across the country are united in calling upon God to be with the victims and to bring aid and comfort to their families and friends.”

Trump has ordered flags lowered for four previous mass shootings – all of which killed more people: Las Vegas (58 dead), Sutherland Springs, Texas (26 dead), Parkland, Florida (17 dead) and Santa Fe, Texas (10 dead). Each time, flags over federal buildings and U.S. ships were lowered for four days.

But like his predecessors, Trump also faces a grim calculus: What differentiates a devastating crime from a truly national tragedy? Is it a matter of body count, or do some attacks carry with them a symbolic significance that transcends the police report?

Brandon Rottinghaus, a University of Houston professor who studies presidential proclamations, said the Maryland shooting was not just about the number killed, but that “the crucial role of the free press in America puts their status on par with any other government official.”

“This is a missed opportunity to make a truce with the press,” he said. “To not lower the flag unfortunately says a lot about the president’s view of the members of the media.”

Trump isn’t the first president to grapple with that quandary. When a Kuwaiti-born Tennessee man shot and killed five service members at recruiting stations around Chattanooga, in July 2015, the White House struggled to explain why it took President Barack Obama five days to sign a proclamation.

“I’m glad President Obama followed my lead and lowered the flags halfstaff. It’s about time!” tweeted Trump, then a candidate for the White House. He had made a show of lowering the flags on Trump Tower.

(The Chattanooga controversy spurred an internet meme that falsely claimed Obama lowered the flag for pop singer Whitney Houston. Instead it was New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie who made that decision for state flags.)

But Obama ended up setting a presidential record for the most flaglowering proclamations – what thenpress secretary Josh Earnest called “a symbolic expression of national mourning.”

Governors and mayors, too, can order the lowering of flags of their state or city. Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan gave that order Saturday.

“With the lowering of the Maryland flag, we honor the dedicated journalists of our hometown newspaper in our state’s capital,” he said. “Journalism is a noble profession upon which our democracy depends, and we will fight to defend it.” But the mayor of Annapolis said – he would not order his city’s flags lowered on his own.

“To not lower the flag unfortunately says a lot about the president’s view of the members of the media.”

Brandon Rottinghaus

University of Houston professor