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FIRST ON FOX: President Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive order on Monday cracking down on suspects who desecrate the American flag, including burning it, by mandating they face prosecution, Fox News Digital exclusively learned.
“The American flag is the most sacred and cherished symbol of the United States of America, and desecrating it is uniquely and inherently offensive and provocative. It is a statement of contempt and hostility toward our Nation, and an act used by groups of foreign nationals calculated to intimidate and threaten violence against Americans,” a fact sheet on the order provided to Fox News Digital reads.
The executive order will direct the attorney general to prosecute those who violate laws “in ways that involve desecrating the flag,” and to pursue litigation that would clarify the scope of the First Amendment as it relates to flag desecration. The order additionally directs Attorney General Pam Bondi to refer flag desecration cases that violate state and local laws to appropriate local authorities.
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The American flag has been desecrated by protesters in recent months, as captured in video footage, most notably during anti-Israel protests that rocked U.S. cities and college campuses under the Biden administration and during Trump administration ICE raids to remove illegal aliens from the nation.
The order directs the attorney general and secretary of homeland security to deny, prohibit, terminate, or revoke visas or other immigration permits and benefits of a non-citizen “wherever there has been an appropriate determination that flag desecration by foreign nationals permits the exercise of those remedies under applicable law,” according to the fact sheet.
Anti-Israel protesters were seen lighting the American flag on fire outside the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in August 2024, as well as in Washington, D.C., in July 2024 when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed Congress amid the war that has continued since 2023, as well as flag burning in New York City’s Washington Square Park over the Fourth of July weekend in 2024 to protest U.S. support of Israel.
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More recently, anti-ICE protesters were seen in June waving Mexican flags on the streets of Los Angeles while burning Old Glory in response to federal law enforcement raiding the city to remove illegal migrants as part of the Trump administration’s efforts to secure the U.S. border.
“This is not just a gesture, this is something we need to make real. We need to take down this empire once and for all,” a protester holding a bullhorn in Los Angeles was heard saying as the American flag laid on the ground engulfed in flames, the New York Post reported in June.
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One protester was seen spitting on the flag as it burned.
Opposition to the flag and the national anthem grew large in 2020, when a spate of professional athletes kneeled for “The Star-Spangled Banner” at the start of games while sports fans held their hands over their hearts and directed their attention toward the flag. Former NFL player Colin Kaepernick was the first sports player to popularize kneeling during the national anthem back in 2016 before it grew in popularity in 2020 amid the Black Lives Matter and defund the police protests that swept the nation following the death of George Floyd.
Trump’s expected executive order on Monday follows a handful of other presidential actions and initiatives he has launched to restore and promote patriotism, including banning State Department offices nationwide, such as embassies, from flying any other flag than America’s.
The president additionally installed two massive 88-foot-tall American flags on either side of the White House in June as part of a patriotic endeavor that Trump personally funded.
“President Trump personally paid to install two big, beautiful American Flags to wave proudly over the White House for years to come. This is just one of many projects President Trump selflessly paid for to make the White House even more patriotic and beautiful,” White House spokesperson Davis Ingle told Fox News Digital of the newly-installed White House flags back in July.
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