Can we talk for a moment about something? I'm referring to the bizarre spectacle that is Trump flags

[Tommy_Carcetti]

The idea of a flag is an interesting concept.

First and foremost, they are best known as a symbol of a country. They also can relate to a state, a county, a city or some other governmental entity.

Flags aren't exclusive to countries and governments, however. If you go to a tailgate event at any given sporting event, you will frequently see flags flying containing the logo of the teams playing.

And flags need not represent positive ideals. The Nazis had flags, as do the KKK.

But even at their most repulsive, or their most benign, it seems like the common denominator behind flags is that they are meant to symbolize a group of people or idea that is larger than just the one individual flying the flag.

Except for one odd exception, and that of course is the Trump Flag.

There's no one uniform version of the Trump Flag, but most of them look something like this:



There's also one with some slightly more colorful--and blatantly ironic--language like this:



Trumpists love to display their Trump flags. Especially popular, for whatever reason, is during boat parades. But you'll see them in any number of settings, including behind these two illustrious members of society who felt it prudent to recreate the murder of George Floyd in front of peaceful protesters:



The existence of the Trump Flag is truly baffling, because it's a flag, but instead of representing a country, a group of people, a movement or an ideal, it's a flag dedicated to a person. A single person.

What sort of person deserves a flag with nothing more than his name on it? I mean, even in most despotic regimes, the flags flown didn't just read "Hitler" or "Stalin."

It speaks to a double phenomenon. First, a growing cult of personality in this country around the supposed President, which is something we have never, ever seen before. (I mean, I remember a lot of nonsense from the right in the 00s around the time of the Iraq War, nonsense about how criticizing the president was somehow "unpatriotic", but I never actually saw anyone flying Bush flags).

And second, it speaks to the narcissism and insatiable ego of the man who currently occupies the White House, a man so consumed with himself that he demands flags with his name be flown by his supporters. And that is certainly terrifying in its own right.

The closest thing we have to this are the MAGA hats, which have grown to become emblematic of a movement on their own. But even those tacky pieces of red headgear don't spell out Trump's own name on them. And had their popularity simply ended with the 2016 campaign itself, you might be tempted to say that they were nothing more than a campaign relic along the line of "I Like Ike" pins or the Obama "Hope" poster, historical pieces that tie into specific election memorabilia and little more. Of course, the MAGA hats have not subsided, and are the new brownshirt of our day.

But for the life of me, I do not remember anything so remotely crass, unprecedented and abnormal as the Trump Flag itself.

Thoughts?