politics
Trump Displays Historic U.S. Flags at July 4 National Mall Event
President Trump spoke on the National Mall on July 4, 2026, and presented multiple historic American flags while recognizing veterans. He also referenced a recent U.S. naval operation against Iran.
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On July 4, 2026. One flag dating to 1777 carried 13 stars and 13 stripes. Trump stated it flew at the Battle of Saratoga and at the British surrender at Yorktown in 1781. A second flag with stars in a 4-5-4 pattern was also shown.
Trump welcomed grandchildren of Buffalo Bill Cody to the stage. He said another flag was carried west at the start of the Lewis and Clark expedition in 1803 and that a different banner was the first to fly over the Brooklyn Bridge after its completion in 1883. Trump added that one flag flew atop a U.S.
Navy flagship after the Battle of Manila Bay in 1898. He stated the U.S. sank the entire Iranian navy, 159 ships, in a recent operation. Pearl Harbor survivor Ken Schubring, 104, saluted the flag from the USS Arizona, which sank on December 7, 1941.
Arthur Rose, 107, saluted a flag carried on one of the first D-Day landing craft. There have been 27 official American flags in U.S. history. The most recent changes occurred in 1959 and 1960 with the admission of Alaska and Hawaii.
Congress passed the Flag Act in 1818, which requires any new flag to enter service on the following Independence Day.
