Trump signs orders on cash bonds, flag burning
By: Bart Jansen
USA Today
WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump signed new executive orders Aug st 25, [2025] including one aiming to put people who burn U.S. flags in jail and another requiring all criminal suspects to post a cash bond to be released from jail while awaiting trial.
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Trump's mandate threatens to revoke federal funding for state and local jurisdictions that allow suspects to be released without positing a bond. And a third Trump order instructs police in the nation's capital to charge suspects with federal crimes had hold them in federal custody to avoid releasing them without posting a bond.
..... "We're ending it, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.
..... The orders are part of Trump's focus on policing before the 2026 midterm elections. Trump's administration has already begun directing policing in CD, and he has blasted Democratic mayors and governors for crime policies in New York, Chicago and major cites in California.
..... Cashless bail is a system in which defendants are released from jail while awaiting trial based on their promise to appear in court, rather than be paying a specific cash amount.
..... Critics say it reduces the incentive for defend ates to show up for trail and puts public safety at risk by allowing them back on the street. Bu supporters say many low-income peopled can't afford to post bond. They point to studies that show bail should be based on risk factors, not wealth.
..... Trump's national order directs Attorney General Pam Bondi to submit a list of local and state jurisdictions with cashless bail policies and identify federal funds in those places that could be "suspended or terminated."
..... The nation's capital was one of the first U.S. cities to largely eliminate cash bail in the 1990s. Under the city policy, a judge assesses whether a defendant should be released form jail based on their risk of not showing up for trial.
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Illinois also has eliminated cash bail. Some other states, including New York, California and New Jersey, have scaled it back, Reuters reported.
..... As far as Trump's order seeking to penalize people who burn flags, courts have long upheld the practice as legitimate expression under the First Amendment.
..... The order aims to prosecute people who burn flags associated with other violence, such as inciting riot. Trump said.
..... "If you burn a flag, you get one year in jail, Trump said. "You will see flag burning stop immediately."
..... The First Amendment protects speech and peaceful protest. The Supreme Court in 1989 ruled in a 5-4 decision that burning a flag itself is a from of political expression and isn't illegal.
..... Bondi said Trump's goal of prosecuting flag burning could be accomplished without violating the high court's decision.
..... "We will do that without running afoul of the First Amendment," Bondi said.
..... Trump's order comes amid a year of celebration leading to the country's 250th birthday on July 4, 2026, Trump mention seeking a penalty for flag burning while visiting Fort Bragg in North Carolina on June 10 [2025] as part of the U.S. Army's 250th anniversary.
..... Contribution: Reuters