You never quite explained why it is wrong to curtail someone’s rights to self-expression. Just got butthurt at other people’s self-expression.
The entire point of Free Speech is to protect speech that we would not necessarily agree with. We don’t NEED to protect the stuff we agree with.
But just for shits and giggles, i was in the military for 20 years. And i have no problem with someone burning the US flag. It doesn’t actually hurt me or the country.
Actually, what really, REALLY pissed me off was october, 2001. Everyone put a flag on their car to virtue signal their patriotism in the face of the terrorist attack, then a month later, half those flags were tattered, torn, faded, or laying in ditches and gutters. Not terribly patriotic. No follow-through.
As for where Trump is coming from, he’s treading water over the Epstein files,and the midterms, and throwing out things that simultaneously appeal to his base, as a treat, and bring up controversy as a distraction.