You know it’s going to be a wild week when social media is in an uproar because they found out that the White House flag has already been raised back to the top of the pole following the tribute to the late John McCain. The White House lowered the flag on Saturday to pay tribute to McCain and it has already been raised on Monday.

Many news websites posted an article about the flag being raised and their headlines made it seem like President Trump and the White House were disrespecting John McCain by only leaving the flag lowered for a short time. It seems like the people writing those articles and the people reading ONLY the headlines are all harping on the fact that Trump and McCain were no friends of each other. Trump did send condolences to the family and the White House flag was still lowered, but we can all rest assured that they didn’t like each other. Playing off the fact that they were basically enemies and the White House flag was only lowered for a small amount of time, then it’s easy to imagine that the Trump haters will think the flag was raised on purpose to disrespect McCain.

That’s not true. Not even close.

Some people wanted the flag lowered to half-mast longer, at least until McCain’s funeral, but that’s not exactly how it works. Or is it? What actually happened is that the White House followed the United States Flag Code and people are upset about it.

Too many people on social media were already enraged when they found out that the flag had been raised and they were writing their own version of the story and ignoring the truth and the facts. They were freaking out and posting horrible comments about the Trump administration being disrespectful because they were not aware of the rules of the U.S. Flag Code.

What we have here is a group of people turning a story about Trump’s White House following the rules into a story about Trump’s White House disrespecting John McCain. Odd, right?

Some expected it to be lowered longer, other’s expected it to be by the book considering the relationship between Trump and McCain. Let’s not even mention that iconic vote he had which stopped the repeal of Obamacare, one of the worst things to ever happen to American health care might have played a little tiny part of ensuring the rules were followed. I don’t know about you, but my health care costs skyrocketed once Obamacare kicked in. Not so sure I’d lower the flag longer either. It seems like mostly Trump-haters are calling this a disgrace, but those who were actually affected by things done by McCain are supportive of the White House and following the rules on this one.

As expected by those who knew the Flag Code and the relationship between the pair, Trump and the White House followed the rules exactly. That didn’t stop people who didn’t know any better. They were busy posting horrible things on their Facebook and Twitter pages accusing the Trump administration of being terrible people. It’s easy to paint a negative picture of Trump, but when you find out that the White House followed the rules, then the negative fake news story should probably stop. It didn’t. The hate kept pouring in and it’s still early on Monday morning. How’s that over a cup of coffee or tea?

Think about that folks. Trump and his administration followed the rules and were still chastised on social media for it. Can you imagine following the rules 100% and people still yelling at you for it? First, they want you to follow the rules. Next, they want you to break the rules if it meets their personal needs. Doesn’t that sound a little bit like Trump Derangement Syndrome?

All of this anti-Trump nonsense was going on because many people either 1) didn’t read any more than the headline and 2) some news sites made their headline seem a bit misleading by making it appear as though Trump did this on purpose to throw shade at McCain, and 3) some websites may not have mentioned the U.S. Flag Code in their article or headline. If they just say the flag is raised again, then they can let people imagine their own story (that’s totally misleading and should be called fake news), and 4) some people just want to stir the pot and keep the hate-train going because they dislike Trump THAT much that they’re willing to look like a fool in front of millions. Some people take a headline and run with it, but they should have read the full story so they didn’t come off as uninformed.

If you’re trashing Trump because he followed the rules, then you might have Trump Derangement Syndrome.

Here’s an image that states what the U.S. Flag Code rules are that would be relevant to John McCain.

Here’s an excerpt from Newsweek which posted the rules:
“United States Flag Code dictates various measures regarding the flag, including where, when, and how the flag should be displayed. To be in accordance with the code, when a flag is set to be flown at half-staff, it first must be raised to the top of the flagpole and then lowered, not simply raised to the half way mark.

Following the death of principal figures of the government, including senators, representatives, and governors, the current president can order the flag to be flown at half-staff in respect to their memory. The length of time the flag remains at half-staff depends on the person’s title and the code states:

President or former president: 30 days from the day of death
Vice president, chief justice, retired chief justice or speaker of the House of Representatives: 10 days from the day of death
Associate justice of the Supreme Court, secretary of an executive or military department, former vice president or governor: from the day of death until burial
For members of Congress, which the Flag Code defines as a senator, representative, delegate or the resident commissioner from Puerto Rico, the flag is to be flown at half-staff on the day of death and the following day.”

Is Trump’s administration supposed to break the rules of the U.S. Flag code for a guy they didn’t like? Is it classy to do so subjectively? I don’t know. If anything, they can make changes to the rule book and then require people to stick to them. However, that’s up to the people in the White House.

It’s just bizarre that people are going crazy over Trump following the rules. If this was someone that Democrats didn’t like, and Trump left the flag lowered long than normal, then the same exact people would be calling on Trump to follow the rules. That level of hypocrisy is astounding.

The people who dislike Trump simply can’t be pleased and the hypocrisy coming from them is at unimaginable levels right now.

If this isn’t a prime example of Trump Derangement Syndrome, then what is? You can almost bet that Mitchell would be calling for President Trump to follow the rules if someone she didn’t like had passed away. Funny how that works, right?

https://twitter.com/TrendingViews1/status/1034083098684735489

At least NBC informed people of the rules. It was refreshing to see this amid all the chaotic nonsense of people demanding that Trump’s administration break their own rules over a guy they didn’t even like.

*** UPDATE *** As of late afternoon of 8/27/2018, the White House flag has been lowered back to half-staff after critics spoke out and demanded it is done. Trump has expressed respects for McCain’s service and answered the request to have it lowered again.

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