Despite free-speech concerns, Trump calls for jailing anyone who burns American flag

July 25 (UPI) -- On Fox & Friends Thursday morning, Donald Trump called for jailing people for one year for burning an American flag, despite the act being a free-speech action protected by the First Amendment.

"You should get a one-year jail sentence if you do anything to desecrate the American flag," Trump said when asked about yesterday's protests in Washington, D.C., where the flag was burned.

During the Fox & Friends show Thursday, Trump added, "Now, people will say, 'Oh, it's unconstitutional.' Those are stupid people. Those are stupid people that say that."

In 1989, the Supreme Court said, in ruling 5-4 in the Texas vs. Johnson case, that burning the American flag is protected free expression under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

The court held that Gregory Lee Johnson's Texas conviction for burning the flag during the 1984 Republican National Convention was "inconsistent with the First Amendment. "

That Supreme Court ruling said, "The government may not prohibit the verbal or nonverbal expression of an idea merely because society finds the idea offensive or disagreeable, even where our flag is involved."

Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris condemned the flag burning but did not call for jailing protesters who burn the flag.

"I condemn the burning of the American flag," Harris said in a statement. "That flag is a symbol of our highest ideals as a nation and represents the promise of America. It should never be desecrated in that way."

Protesters burned an American flag Wednesday in Washington, D.C., in protests against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as he was speaking to a joint session of Congress.

In a 2022 post on his social media site, Trump called for the "termination" of U.S. rules and regulations, "even those found in the Constitution ," while falsely claiming that tech companies and Democrats conspired to "throw the presidential election results" in 2020.

He later denied he wanted to terminate the Constitution.

Despite the constitutional freedom issue, Trump declared on Fox & Friends that, "We have to work in Congress to get a one-year jail sentence. When they're allowed to stomp on the flag and put lighter fluid on the flag and set it afire -- when you're allowed to do that, you get a one-year jail sentence and you'll never see it again."