DeSantis rips White House over flag, topless guest debacles

August 2024 · 3 minute read

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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis took the Biden administration to task Thursday for putting the Pride flag front-and-center at the White House and inviting a transgender influencer who went topless on the South Lawn.

“When they had at the White House, you know, this transgender flag as the precedence over the American flag, that’s wrong, that is not how you display the American flag,” DeSantis, a top contender for the 2024 Republican nomination, told reporters in Fort Pierce at a budget-signing event.

On Saturday, the White House celebrated Pride Month with decorations that included a rainbow-colored LGBTQ+ flag at the center of the White House balcony, with American flags to its right and left — an apparent violation of the US Flag Code.

That same day, Rose Montoya, 27, shook hands with President Biden before later removing her top. Images of the stunt swirled on social media, and the White House later decried the exhibition as “inappropriate and disrespectful” before barring Montoya from future events.

Republican presidential candidate Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks at an event held by the Never Back Down PAC in Tulsa, Okla., on Saturday, June 10, 2023. AP

“I think when you have the inappropriate conduct at the White House, with, like, these transgenders flashing people, nude and all this stuff, it’s just totally inappropriate,” DeSantis added. “And I think even the White House had to acknowledge it was inappropriate.”

The governor, a conservative crusader in the culture wars, also took a swing at Democrats who have lambasted his parental rights legislation.

“But I would ask them: If it’s inappropriate to do that at the White House – which I certainly think it is – why do you want to have that curriculum jammed into a second-grader’s classroom?”

The Progress Pride flag hangs from the balcony of the White House during a Pride Celebration in the South Lawn, hosted by President Joe Biden, in Washington, U.S., June 10, 2023. REUTERS

Last year, DeSantis signed the Florida Parental Rights in Education Act, which critics dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill.

The legislation restricted classroom instruction on “sexual orientation or gender identity” in a manner “that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students” from kindergarten through third grade.

He later signed a bill extending the restrictions all the way through 12th grade.

Montoya, 27, was barred from the executive mansion on Tuesday, as footage went viral of her pulling her shirt and cupping her breasts moments after meeting Biden on the South Lawn at a Pride party Saturday. rosemontoya/Tiktok

The flag code calls for the Stars and Stripes to “be at the center and at the highest point of the group when a number of flags of States or localities or pennants of societies are grouped and displayed from staffs.”

Defenders of the White House argued the US flag on the White House roof ensured compliance with the code because it was positioned higher than the Pride flag.

In response to the controversy, Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) proposed legislation to bar federal buildings from flying flags other than the Stars and Stripes, with a handful of carveouts.

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