Protester Burns Flag Outside White House Hours After Trump’s Order

Hours after President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday directing the Justice Department to prosecute people who burn the American flag, a man protested by setting fire to the Stars and Stripes in front of the White House.

Video from the incident in Washington, D.C.’s Lafayette Square shows a man claiming to be a 25-year Army combat veteran announce that he was “burning this flag as a protest to that illegal, fascist president that sits in that house.”

He was taken into custody around 6:30 p.m. Eastern time by officers who appeared to be from the U.S. Secret Service, according to The Washington Post. The man was arrested for violating a statute against setting fires in federal parks, not for running afoul of the new and legally questionable executive mandate.

Before setting the flag ablaze, he addressed witnesses with a bullhorn.

“I fought for every single one of your rights to express yourself in however you feel that you may want to express yourself,” said the man, whom authorities declined to identify. “There’s a First Amendment right to burn the American flag. … No president can make a law, period — no Congress can make a law infringing on First Amendment rights.”

In a 1989 ruling, the Supreme Court determined flag burning was a form of speech protected under the First Amendment.

Trump’s order tried to carve out exceptions to the long-standing decision, urging prosecutors to consider if cases could be categorized as “violent crimes; hate crimes, illegal discrimination against American citizens, or other violations of Americans’ civil rights; and crimes against property and the peace, as well as conspiracies and attempts to violate, and aiding and abetting others to violate, such laws.”

While signing the order on Monday, Trump baselessly claimed flag burnings had provoked public unrest.

“When you burn the American flag, it incites riots at levels we’ve never seen before,” he said.