Trump’s Flag Burning Stance: Tough New Executive Order
President Donald Trump has announced that any individual who engages in the act of burning the American flag will face immediate arrest and a potential one-year prison sentence.
“To ICE, Border Patrol, Law Enforcement, and all U.S. Military: As per my August 25, 2025 Executive Order, please be advised that, from this point forward, anybody burning the American Flag will be subject to one year in prison,” Trump posted on Truth Social on Friday evening.
“You will be immediately arrested. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
Trump’s statement references an Executive Order he signed earlier in August that criminalizes flag burning, making it a punishable offense.
It’s worth noting that prior Supreme Court cases, such as “Texas v. Johnson (1989)” and “United States v. Eichman (1990),” determined flag burning as protected symbolic speech under the First Amendment. However, Trump’s Executive Order asserts that such actions incite violence and thus warrant punishment.
“President Trump will not allow the American Flag, a special symbol of our country’s greatness, to be used as a tool to incite violence and riots that jeopardize the safety of everyday Americans,” stated White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson. “President Trump will always protect the First Amendment while simultaneously implementing commonsense, tough-on-crime policies to prevent violence and chaos.”
This new executive order was issued following recent protests outside a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Portland, Oregon. Conservative journalist Nick Sortor was filmed being arrested during these disturbances.
According to the Portland Police Bureau, officers noticed “some protest participants engaging in fights” that evening, leading to Sortor’s arrest on charges of second-degree disorderly conduct.
“This was as big of a surprise to me as it was to everybody else. All of a sudden, you know, I’m being jumped by Antifa thugs,” Sortor recounted after his release. He expressed disbelief at being arrested, thinking initially that police were there to help him.
“When they put me into handcuffs, the first thing that went to my mind wasn’t, ‘Oh, you’re being arrested.’ It’s, ‘Oh, they’re trying to help you and get you out of here.’ They weren’t telling me what they were doing… It took over an hour for me to find out what I was charged with,” he added.
Sortor remarked that “the Antifa people out here don’t exactly love the First Amendment,” suggesting they then act defensively when the tables are turned.
“They act like they do until it’s reciprocated on them. I have every right to stand out here and film them. We saw them get in the way of federal agents trying to come out of the ICE facility here, and when they ended up pushing against ICE agents, they got maced. Okay, so I went in and filmed that aftermath,” Sortor said.
The Portland Police Bureau saw multiple altercations close to the ICE facility around 8:09 p.m. Later that night, at approximately 11:16 p.m., three individuals were arrested by the police’s Rapid Response Team and charged with second-degree disorderly conduct.
The arrested individuals included Angela Davis, aged 49, from Vernonia, Oregon; Son Mi Yi, 43, from Portland; and Nicholas Sortor, 27, from Washington, D.C.
