As Ursula Faw informed us yesterday, the whining little baby man who was regrettably elected to the Presidency a few weeks ago is throwing a hissy fit about the fact that old glory will be flown at “half mast” or, more correctly, “half staff” over the coming goat rodeo that will serve as his inauguration.
Our friend over at the X place, Ron Filipkowski, republished Trump’s whinging Truth Social post about the matter:
It's as if President Carter passed at an inconvenient time for this criminal. He'll probably order the flag to be raised as soon as he's sworn in.
— Claire S🖤🩷🖤 (@SaintLaurant) January 3, 2025
In addition to the fact that Trump, as is typical, told on himself by saying, as an admission couched as accusation, that his detractors “think only of themselves” when the phrase most aptly describes himself, and complained about the flag being flown at half mast as if the inauguration was being staged at a regatta rather than at the Capitol, he also falsely stated that “the flag may, for the first time ever during an inauguration of a future President, be at half mast.”
This is not accurate, as within the lifetime of many of the readers of Politizoom, our flag did indeed fly over the Inauguration of a President.
The date was January 20th, 1973, when Richard Nixon, having himself ordered the flag flown at half staff to honor the passing of President Harry Truman, accepted the will of the voters at his second swearing in, on December 26, 1972.
Nixon even eulogized the man from Independence with a gracious statement oh his passing:
December 26, 1972
HARRY S TRUMAN will be remembered as one of the most courageous Presidents in our history, who led the Nation and the world through a critical period with exceptional vision and determination.Our hopes today for a generation of peace rest in large measure on the firm foundations that he laid.
Recognizing the new threat to peace that had emerged from the ashes of war, he stood boldly against it with his extension of aid to Greece and Turkey in 1947–and the “Truman Doctrine” thus established was crucial to the defense of liberty in Europe and the world. In launching the Marshall Plan, he began the most farsighted and most generous act of international rebuilding ever undertaken. With his characteristically decisive action in Korea, he made possible the defense of peace and freedom in Asia.
He was a fighter who was at his best when the going was toughest. Like all political leaders, he had his friends and his opponents. But friends and opponents alike were unanimous in respecting him for his enormous courage, and for the spirit that saw him through whatever the odds. Whether in a political campaign or making the great decisions in foreign policy, they recognized and admired him–in a description he himself might have appreciated the most–as a man of “guts.”
Embroiled in controversy during his Presidency, his stature in the eyes of history has risen steadily ever since. He did what had to be done, when it had to be done, and because he did the world today is a better and safer place–and generations to come will be in his debt.
It is with affection and respect that a grateful Nation now says farewell to “the man from Independence”–to its thirty-third President, Harry S Truman.
In the context of this time and this President-elect it seems unthinkable that Nixon would so honor the man that said the following about himself.
“Richard Nixon is a no good, lying bastard. He can lie out of both sides of his mouth at the same time, and if he ever caught himself telling the truth, he’d lie just to keep his hand in.”
Despite his myriad faults, Nixon was not a whining, mewling, slobbering baby-man, but rather a flawed and practiced statesman that was mindful of his place in history… and of the protocols and decencies that help to keep our democracy afloat.
I will not dispute Harry’s estimation of Nixon, far be that from me, but will here only observe that it might most appropriately be applied to our future occupier of the Oval Office.
But Harry had the great good fortune to have never met Trump.
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