“To ICE, Border Patrol, Law Enforcement, and all U.S. Military: As per my August 25, 2025 Executive Order, please be advised that, from this point forward, anybody burning the American Flag will be subject to one year in prison,” Trump posted on Truth Social Friday evening.

“You will be immediately arrested. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”

I was not born or raised in the US, and did not take American civics courses in high school. But even as a naturalized citizen, I have heard enough about the system of government in the US from the news and movies to be able to smell the stench of illegality and lawlessness in the above statements.

I don’t like or condone burning flags. I, too, believe that it is disrespectful. Chances are you feel the same way as well. But it is not up to us to decide whether an act is criminal or not, nor is it up to the President. It is only the Congress that can pass laws and create statutes defining criminal acts and providing sentencing guidelines. And even that should be consistent with the Constitution. It is embarrassing to see that the president of a country does not have enough information about its constitution to know that its First Amendment prevents the Congress from making laws that limits the rights of its citizens to free speech and peaceful assembly. In fact, the question about the very act of flag burning was escalated all the way to the Supreme Court a few decades ago, and the ruling was very clear about the act being protected under the First Amendment.

Yes, the First Amendment is not just to protect Alex Jones when he claims that the Sandy Hook shooting was a fake, and all the children who died that day and their parents were paid actors. Or when he claims that tap water turns your son gay, and sells you anti-gay merchandize to protect you and your family from the deep state conspiracy to turn everyone gay. It actually, and more importantly, protects peaceful assembly and rightful criticism of and protest against government’s wrongdoings, even if that is in the form of burning American flag.

So, even the Congress cannot declare flag burning a crime, let alone the President. But let’s just for a moment assume that flag burning was indeed a crime. Even if that were the case, why would ICE enforce that law? What does that have anything to do with enforcing immigration laws? Or the military; why would military be involved in enforcing domestic laws? Has the President not even heard of the posse comitatus act that prevents the military from engaging in domestic law enforcement (except for very rare circumstances, none of which is currently applicable).

But worst of all is to learn that the President does not even know how the three branches of the government work. He considers himself to be a lawmaker, a prosecutor, a judge, and an entire jury, all at the same time. Even for a criminal act for which there is substantial evidence, it is not the President, or anybody in the executive branch for that matter, that decides on guilt or innocence and issues a sentence. The executive branch can only present the results of their investigation and the evidences they have to a judge and in most cases a jury, and only they can decide on the guilt or innocence of the indicted. And only if there was a guilty verdict, it is the judge that makes a decision on the sentence.

Quite frankly, I am not sure if Trump is really ignorant enough to not know any of the above, or that he assumes that the American people are ignorant enough to not realize how deceitful his statements and acts are. Either way, it makes him unfit for the office he has been elected for.