The Daily Fuckup

A U.S. flag at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club was observed flying at full height on January 13, 2025, while the federal mourning period for former President Jimmy Carter was still underway. A White House proclamation after Carter’s death ordered flags to remain at half-staff for 30 days from December 29, 2024, which meant the period ran through January 28, 2025, and set January 9 as the national day of mourning. ([public-inspection.federalregister.gov](https://public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2024-31762.pdf?utm_source=openai))

That makes the image easy to read without stretching it into something bigger than it is: the club’s flag was up before the mourning period ended. AP reported on January 13 that the flag at Mar-a-Lago was already back at full height, even as the Carter order remained in place. ([apnews.com](https://apnews.com/article/c90e341b89615aef8817c6fc021a93b7?utm_source=openai))

The point here is timing, not motive. The public record shows the date of Carter’s death, the length of the flag-lowering order, and the January 13 observation of the Mar-a-Lago flag. What it does not show is why the flag was raised, or who decided to do it. Any claim about intent would go beyond the documented facts. ([public-inspection.federalregister.gov](https://public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2024-31762.pdf?utm_source=openai))

The result was a small but visible mismatch: a highly symbolic flag display at a private Trump property during an active national mourning period. No constitutional crisis follows from that. But the picture did put a simple, public protocol question in plain view. ([public-inspection.federalregister.gov](https://public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2024-31762.pdf?utm_source=openai))