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Gov. Greg Abbott orders all flags at full staff for Inauguration Day

Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump, right, is introduced by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott at the South Texas International Airport Sunday, Nov. 19, 2023, in Edinburg, Texas. Abbott and Trump help serve a Thanksgiving meal to Texas state troopers and guardsmen. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
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AP
Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump, right, is introduced by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott at the South Texas International Airport Sunday, Nov. 19, 2023, in Edinburg, Texas. Abbott and Trump help serve a Thanksgiving meal to Texas state troopers and guardsmen. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Gov. Greg Abbott has ordered all flags — which are at half-staff following former President Jimmy Carter's death — to be raised to full staff for Inauguration Day.

The U.S. flag code mandates flags be flown at half-staff on federal buildings for 30 days after the death of a president or former president. The flag code gives a state governor the power to order flags at half-staff, and in accordance with the code, flags across the nation have been at half-staff since Carter died on Dec. 29.

But the code does not apply to states governmental buildings, only federal. In a statement released a week before the Jan. 20 inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump, Abbott said the U.S. flag should be raised on Inauguration Day.

"As we unite our country and usher in this new era of leadership, I ordered all flags to be raised to full-staff at the Texas Capitol and all state buildings for the inauguration of President Trump," Abbott said in the statement. "While we honor the service of a former President, we must also celebrate the service of an incoming President and the bright future ahead for the United States of America.”

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Megan Cardona