Veteran who burned the US flag 'looking forward' to Trump court showdown
By Nic White and Phillip Nieto
Daily Mail
Aug 30, 2025
Jay Carey, a US Army veteran who burned an American flag in front of the White House, has dared Donald Trump to prosecute him
A US Army veteran who burned an American flag in front of the White House has dared Donald Trump to prosecute him.
Jay Carey was arrested after setting fire to the flag in Lafayette Square on Monday as a 'direct challenge' to Trump's executive order banning the act.
Trump signed an order that morning demanding prison time for anyone destroying a US flag and deportation if they were an immigrant.
'If you burn a flag, you get one year in jail, no early exits, no nothing,' Trump declared from the Oval Office.
Carey, an Iraq and Afghanistan war veteran, was appalled as the Supreme Court ruled in 1989 that flag burning is protected by the First Amendment.
He was already in DC when he saw the news, traveling with a group of veterans to protest against Trump deploying the National Guard to DC.
He said he is 'looking forward' to his day in court should any charges come and confident Trump would lose.
'Presidents don't make law, and Congress will make no law that infringes upon our rights in accordance with the First Amendment,' he told Newsweek.
Videos posted online showed him shouting to a crowd of protesters and onlookers as the flag burned next to him.
'I served over 20 years in the US Army. I fought for every single one of your rights to express yourself in however you feel that you may want to express yourself,' he yelled.
Carey earned a Bronze Star while fighting the Iraq war, along with two Meritorious Service Medals, eight Army Commendation Medals and six Army Achievement Medals.
He was deployed to Kuwait, Bosnia, Iraq and Afghanistan and retired as a sergeant first class.
Secret Service agents arrested him during the flag burning, due to his proximity to the White House, then handed him over to the US Park Police.
Carey was arrested after setting fire to the flag in Lafayette Square on Monday as a 'direct challenge' to Trump's executive order banning it
Videos posted online showed him shouting to a crowd of protesters and onlookers as the flag burned next to him
Carey earned a Bronze Star while fighting the Iraq war, along with two Meritorious Service Medals, eight Army Commendation Medals and six Army Achievement Medals
He was released after five hours in custody and given a summons to faces charges of lighting a fire in a federal park, unrelated to the flag itself.
However, Carey believes he is being investigated for federal charges under Trump's executive order, whose ego he feels he bruised by immediately defying him.
His claims his family received voicemails from people identifying themselves as Secret Service agents wanting to ask questions about him.
In his executive order Trump instructed the Justice Department to find test cases to challenge the 1989 Supreme Court ruling.
The order claimed people could still be charged if the flag burning is likely to incite imminent lawless action' or amounts to 'fighting words'.
'I realized that I needed to, that day, go and burn a flag in front of the White House to have the biggest impact and send the message to the president that he's not allowed to do that.'
Carey was deployed to Kuwait, Bosnia, Iraq and Afghanistan and retired as a sergeant first class
Carey in front of the US Supreme Court, where he hopes to return in defiance of Trump's flag burning ban
Carey's said the whole point of his protest was to become a test case and defeat Trump at the Supreme Court.
'I welcome it. I went there with the intention of them trying to make like, trying to pin stuff on me that they couldn't prove, that wasn't justified,' he said.
'And I'm looking forward to going to the Supreme Court if necessary to fight this and to once again, reaffirm that we are protected in burning the US flag under the First Amendment.'
Flag burning first become popular during protests in the US in the Vietnam War but it took years to be confirmed as constitutionally protected.
Since the start of his career in politics, Trump has advocated for imposing legal penalties on protesters who destroy the American flag despite the Supreme Court's prior ruling.
In the past, the president has called for stripping the citizenship from naturalized American citizens who burn the flag and advocated for jail time as a punishment.
During the 2024 campaign season Trump even floated the idea of introducing a constitutional amendment to ban flag burning as a form of protected protest.
Trump signed an executive order on Monday directing the DOJ to punish Americans who burn the US flag
Trump referred to protesters who burn the flag as 'animals' and demanded they be given jail time
'My administration will act to restore respect and sanctity to the American flag and prosecute those who incite violence or otherwise violate our laws while desecrating this symbol of our country, to the fullest extent permissible under any available authority,' his order read.
Attorney General Pam Bondi is directed to review all cases where the flag has been burned and find what other charges could be brought forward.
Trump called for throwing anti-ICE demonstrators in jail for a year for setting the flag on fire during protests earlier this year.
'These are animals, but they proudly carry the flags of other countries. They don't carry the American flag,' Trump told a crowd of service members at Fort Bragg.
'They only burn it. Did you see a lot of the flags being burned?'
'They weren't being burned by people from our country, or from people that love our country. People that burn the American flag should go to jail for one year.'
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