President-elect Donald Trump’s plans for a perfect inauguration are being foiled by former President Jimmy Carter, who died last week at the age of 100.
As is standard practice in memorializing dead former presidents, American flags displayed at federal buildings, grounds, and on naval vessels will be flown at half mast for a 30-day period of national mourning. While 30 days may seem like a long time, it’s a decades-long tradition reserved for sitting and former presidents — one that Trump will theoretically be granted upon his passing. But for the president-elect, the notion that the death of a predecessor could interfere with the aesthetics of his return to power is unconscionable.
“Because of the death of President Jimmy Carter, the Flag may, for the first time ever during an Inauguration of a future President, be at half mast,” Trump wrote Friday on…
