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By Khaleda Rahman
National Correspondent
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A 22-year Army veteran was arrested near the White House after setting fire to an American Flag on Monday, hours after President Donald Trump signed an executive order seeking to punish those who burn the American flag.
Jay Carey, a retired combat veteran and Bronze Star recipient, was taken into custody after the incident in Lafayette Park, FOX5 reported.
Newsweek has contacted Carey and the U.S. Park Police for comment via emails sent outside regular business hours.
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Why It Matters
The Supreme Court ruled in a 5-4 decision in Texas v. Johnson in 1989—with the late Justice Antonin Scalia, a conservative icon, in the majority—that the First Amendment protects flag burning as legitimate political expression.
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But the order Trump signed, while acknowledging the court's ruling in the 1989 case, said there is still room to prosecute flag burning if it "is likely to incite imminent lawless action" or amounts to "fighting words."
Civil liberties advocates and constitutional scholars have questioned both the legality and the merit of Trump's action.
What To Know
In videos posted on social media, Carey was seen telling passersby that Trump's executive order violates the First Amendment.
"I served over 20 years in the United States Army," he said. "I fought for every single one of your rights to express yourself in however you feel that you may want to express yourself. It is a First Amendment right to burn the American flag."
He added: "I'm doing it for every single one of you American citizens. We burn this flag in protest to that president who feels that it's his right to do whatever he wants, make whatever law he wants, regardless if it's legal or illegal."
Carey previously went viral after hurling expletives at Republican Representative Chuck Edwards as he criticized Trump administration cuts at a town hall event in North Carolina in March.
Videos show him yelling "do your job," "you don't get to do this" and "f*** you."
He later told the Asheville Watchdog in an interview that he felt it was necessary, adding: "I think it was the only way to really get his attention, and it was the energy that I want to see from everyone—to stand up and to speak back to the representatives that aren't serving us, as is their duty." He said he was escorted out of the building, but not charged with any offenses.
According to the news website, Carey is a registered Democrat who served in the tank corps in Desert Storm in Iraq, and in Afghanistan and Bosnia. He also ran for Edwards' congressional seat in 2022, but lost in the Democratic primary.
What People Are Saying
President Donald Trump told reporters on Monday: "When you burn the American flag, it incites riots at levels we've never seen before. People go crazy."
He added: "You burn a flag, you get one year in jail. You don't get 10 years, you don't get one month. You get one year in jail, and it goes on your record, and you will see flag burning stopping immediately."
White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers told Newsweek after the incident that the president "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."
Bob Corn-Revere, chief counsel of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, said in a statement: "President Trump may believe he has the power to revise the First Amendment with the stroke of a pen, but he doesn't.
"Flag burning as a form of political protest is protected by the First Amendment. That's nothing new. While people can be prosecuted for burning anything in a place they aren't allowed to set fires, the government can't prosecute protected expressive activity—even if many Americans, including the president, find it 'uniquely offensive and provocative.'"
The U.S. Park Police previously told Newsweek: "At about 6:30 p.m., the United States Park Police arrested one person in Lafayette Park for a violation of 36 CFR 2.13(a)(1), prohibited fire. All units have cleared the scene."
What's Next
Carey was released from custody on Monday night.
He said in a video posted on TikTok that he was held for several hours and released after being charged with "lighting a fire in a park."
"I did this in protest of what Donald Trump did with that executive order saying that it was illegal to burn an American flag. He can't make orders and I want to put it to the test. So I did," he said. "I'm not in jail for a year."
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