Trump Attempts to Punish Flag Burners, Cashless Bail Crackdown, Snoop Slams Pixar: AM Update 8/26

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good morning everyone.

I'm Megan Kelly.

It's Tuesday, August 26th, 2025 and this is your AM update.

Instructs the Department of Justice to prosecute those who are engaged in these instances of flag burning.

President Trump signs an executive order attempting to work around Supreme Court precedent on flag burning.

Plus a new pair of executive orders targeting cashless bail in deep blue cities.

Y'all throwing me in the middle of shit that I don't have an answer for.

Rapper and Trump antagonist Snoop Dogg reacts to woke Disney Pixar programming in a very relatable way.

All that and more coming up in just a moment on your AM update.

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On Monday, President Trump signing an executive order attempting to punish those who engage in flag burning, ordering the Department of Justice to prosecute individuals who violate laws while desecrating the American flag, so long, he says, as the First Amendment is not violated.

Good luck with that.

In 1989, the Supreme Court ruling in a 5-4 decision that burning an American flag is expressive conduct protected by the First Amendment.

The case originating with the arrest of one Gregory Lee Johnson in 1984 for burning an American flag outside of a convention center in Dallas, Texas, protesting President Reagan's policies.

Johnson was convicted under a Texas statute outlawing the desecration of a venerated object, including the American flag, if such an action were likely to incite anger in others.

The majority siding with Mr.

Johnson, who said this violated his free speech rights and overturning his conviction.

Justice William Brennan, appointed by President Eisenhower, writing for the majority, quote, Johnson's expressive conduct does not fall within that small class of fighting words that are likely to provoke the average person to retaliation and thereby cause a breach of the peace.

No reasonable onlooker would have regarded Johnson's generalized expression of dissatisfaction with the policies of the federal government as a direct personal insult.

or an invitation to exchange fisticuffs.

Brennan also writing, quote, the way to preserve the flag's special role is not to punish those who feel differently about these matters, it is to persuade them that they are wrong.

Conservative icon Justice Antonin Scalia, siding with the majority in that case, later saying of the decision, quote, if it were up to me, I would put in jail every sandal-wearing, scruffy-bearded weirdo who burns the American flag.

But I am not king.

Senior White House staffer Will Scharf explaining the executive order Monday from the Oval.

What the executive order does, sir, it charges your Department of Justice with investigating instances of flag burning, and then where there's evidence of criminal activity,

where prosecution wouldn't fall afoul of the First Amendment, and instructs the Department of Justice to prosecute those who are engaged in these instances of flag burning.

That's like saying the DOJ is charged with investigating whether people can have individual opinions.

And where there is evidence those opinions are really, really bad, if the prosecution would not fall outside of the First Amendment, we prosecute.

Also in the EO, quote, in cases where the DOJ or another executive department or agency determines that an instance of American flag desecration may violate an applicable state or local law, such as open burning restrictions, disorderly conduct laws, or destruction of property laws, the agencies shall refer the matter to the appropriate state or local authority for potential action.

Eh, maybe the open burning thing could stand.

Certainly, if the flag is someone else's property, you could get in trouble.

But the act of burning the flag will not be criminalized, not under our First Amendment, no matter how much one may dislike it.

The Attorney General and Secretary of State also directed to deny, prohibit, terminate, or revoke the visas of, and even seek the removal of foreigners who desecrate the American flag when legally applicable.

President Trump with more.

As you know, through a very sad court, I guess it was a five to four four decision, they called it freedom of speech.

But there's another reason which is perhaps much more important.

It's called death.

Because what happens when you burn a flag is the area goes crazy.

If you have hundreds of people, they go crazy.

You can do other things.

You can burn this piece of paper.

But when you burn the American flag, it incites riots.

at levels that we've never seen before.

People go crazy.

In a way, both ways.

There are some that are going crazy for doing it.

There are others that are angry,

angry about them doing it.

Mr.

Trump going on to say the penalty for inciting a riot via flag burning will be one year in jail, but that punishment is not spelled out in the executive order.

The federal statute for inciting a riot carries a penalty of up to five years in prison.

The incitement exception to the First Amendment, however, is very limited.

It would only apply if the flag burning, the speech, is both meant to and likely to incite imminent law breaking.

Tough standard.

The president has long been interested in this topic, Mr.

Trump floating consequences for flag burners as early as November 2016.

Instances of flag burning becoming more common in recent years as left-wing radicals protest everything about America, from the BLM riots of 2020 to the anti-Israel demonstrations across college campuses, to anti-ICE protesters in LA taking to the streets in June, waving foreign flags proudly as old glory burned on the ground.

Conservatives appearing divided on the order, some citing an incident in 2019, an Iowa man sentenced to at least 15 years for stealing a gay pride flag from a church and burning it outside of a strip club.

Theft and destruction of property do not fall under protected political speech.

Activist Chris Ruffo posting, quote, I'm sorry, but as long as this is the status quo, I'm not going to work myself into a state of hysteria about Trump's executive order on burning the American flag.

However, many prominent conservative voices speaking out against the order.

Right-wing radio host and former Marine Jesse Kelly posting, quote, I would never in a million years harm the American flag, but a president telling me I can't has me as close as I'll ever be to lighting one on fire.

I am a free American citizen, and if I ever feel like torching one, I will.

This is garbage.

Commentator Eric Erickson, who also has a law degree, positing his theory about the executive order on X, quote, the president's executive order on flag burning is not legal, but it will get the Democrats to all go out and burn American flags, yet again, putting them on the 20% side of an 80-20 issue.

Right on cue, failed VP candidate Tim Walsh from the DNC's summer meeting on Monday.

Now he's talking about burning flags.

He's going to have flag burning or whatever, because he knows there's a hell of a lot of flags with his picture on it that are going to get burned.

We spoke to chief counsel at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, or FIRE, Bob Korn-Revere, who says this order flies in the face of the First Amendment.

It's a long-standing principle of First Amendment law that someone in a crowd who doesn't like what a speaker is saying doesn't get to silence them by threatening to be disruptive.

The law and the First Amendment require that the government protect the speaker, not the person who threatens violence.

And it appears that this executive order is predicated on saying that there are likely to be people people out there that don't like what the speakers are saying, what protesters are saying, and therefore, because of that, we're going to silence the protesters rather than preserving order.

That seemed to be what President Trump was talking about when he was talking about crowd reactions to it.

And it's precisely the same argument that the Supreme Court confronted in 1989 in Texas versus Johnson when it held that that justification couldn't support the Texas attempt to prosecute Gregory Lee Johnson when he burned a flag in protest.

Revere describing what legal challenges may arise out of this order.

It looks like what is likely to happen is that someone, either at the federal level or state level, will initiate some sort of prosecution against a flag burner, someone who is protesting using that as their means of expression.

And that the defense, I would imagine, would include a constitutional argument, that this is merely an example of someone being being prosecuted because the government doesn't like what they're trying to say.

And that is a plain violation of the First Amendment.

If you go back to the whole question of incitement, the Supreme Court in 1969 in Brandenburg versus Ohio said that Klansmen burning a cross didn't constitute incitement.

And so this really is a non-starter from a constitutional perspective.

Revere also predicting this executive order will not have its intended effect.

President Trump in his statement appeared to say that by issuing this decree, that was going to end flag burning in America.

And I think history shows that exactly the opposite is likely to happen.

After the Supreme Court struck down the Texas attempt to prosecute flag burning in 1989, Congress adopted the Flag Protection Act that was designed to prevent flag burning as a result of the Supreme Court decision.

And the effect of that was that we had more examples and instances of flag burning burning in protest of passing that law than had existed in the previous 200 years in American history.

So I think that the reaction to this executive order is likely to be the opposite of what President Trump intends.

Coming up, President Trump puts far-left cities on notice by going after cashless bail policies.

And rapper Snoop Dogg draws backlash for complaints about woke Disney content.

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President Trump also on Monday signing a pair of executive orders taking aim at cashless bail, meaning when people accused of crimes are not required to pay money to be released from jail pending trial.

One executive order purporting to end cashless bail entirely in Washington, D.C., the latest action amid the Trump administration's federal takeover of local law enforcement there.

White House Staff Secretary Will Scharf describing the second order Monday from the Oval.

Cashless bail policies are a key driver of the disorder we see on city streets all over America.

Catch and release system allows criminals to keep going back out onto the street and reoffending.

What this executive order does, it charges your Attorney General with identifying jurisdictions all over the country that have cashless bail policies, and then it withholds or revokes federal funds and grants that are flowing to those jurisdictions to ensure that we're only supporting the people who have reasonable common sense policies around crime.

The bail reform movements began across deep blue pockets of the country around the mid-2010s, that trend catching fire during the George Floyd era.

Washington, D.C.

had already eliminated cash bail in the 90s, while New Jersey and Illinois later followed suit by instituting purely risk-based bail assessments, meaning you're either too risky to be released or you're not, but there's no buying your way out of jail.

New Mexico and New York adopting policies heavily curtailing cash bail, and cities like LA, Philadelphia, San Francisco rolling out reforms of their own.

Progressives arguing cash bail unjustly punishes low-income offenders who cannot pay, while wealthier suspects walk free ahead of their trials.

Supporters countering that it provides a crucial incentive, ensuring suspects show up for their court dates and helps keep repeat offenders off the streets.

Throughout the 2024 campaign, President Trump vowing to reverse soft on crime policies.

Here he is from the Oval on Monday.

One of the executive orders has to do with cashless bail.

That was when the big crime in this country started.

And somebody kills somebody, they go in, don't worry about it, no cash, come back in a couple of months.

We'll give you a trial.

You never see the person again.

And I mean, they kill people and they get out.

They thought it was discriminatory to make people put up money because they just killed three people lying on a street.

Any street, all over the country, cashless bail.

We're ending it.

Attorney General Pam Bondi flanking the president offering some examples highlighting the risks of cashless bail.

A mother, a single mom, whose house was burglarized and the defendant got out on cashless bail, went back the next night and burglarized her house again.

That's why this is so important.

A man got in a fight with another guy.

He had a gun.

He was let out.

Next night, he got up, went back, and killed him.

So that's why it's so important, President, what you're doing.

As we've reported on yesterday's AM update, President Trump is eyeing Chicago and New York as the next targets for a federal crime crackdown, with Baltimore potentially in the running as well.

Legal challenges are expected for all of Trump's recent actions on crime.

Rapper Snoop Dogg, angering the left with his recent comments about his experience watching a Pixar movie with his grandson, saying he was blindsided by an LGBTQ storyline in the movie Lightyear.

The comments made on the It's Giving podcast last week going viral Monday on social media.

I took my grandson to see, what was the movie with

Buzz Light?

Toy Story?

Not that one, but this.

Oh, the new, the new Buzz, the Lightyear.

So we watching it, and the lady, they're like, man, she had a baby with a woman.

Well, my grandson, in the middle of the movie, like, Papa Sloop, how she have a baby with a woman?

She a woman.

Oh, shit.

I didn't come in for this.

I just came to watch the goddamn movie.

Hey, man, watch the movie.

Uh-uh.

They just said she and she had a baby.

They both women.

How did she have a baby?

Shh.

The movie ain't over with.

So it's like, it's fucked me.

I'm scared to go to the movies now.

Like, y'all throwing me in the middle of shit that I don't have an answer answer for.

Outraged woke viewers firing off in the comments on YouTube.

One writing, quote, wow, I'm so embarrassed that I ever liked him.

And I spoke positively about him to my kids.

Another posting, quote, wow, this is sad.

I thought Snoop was pretty open and accepting.

The comment panned by entertainment outlets, AV Club, writing, quote, Snoop Dogg is opening up about a terrifying experience he had at the movies, one that was seemingly so distressing, it took him three whole years to talk about it.

No, it wasn't at a screening of hereditary or weapons or anything that would be slightly less embarrassing for the gin and juice rapper.

Snoop Dogg couldn't handle a children's movie and a Pixar one at that for one specific reason, lesbians.

Lord.

Despite the backlash, Snoop's views are far from unique.

The 2022 Pixar film Lightyear drawing Backlash as the studio's first to feature a gay kiss.

The scene reportedly at one point cut from the film, then restored after internal pushback from Pixar and Disney employees.

You know, the ones who were trying to get their self-described gay agenda into Disney movies at every turn.

The film banned in more than a dozen countries in the Middle East and Asia, like many other decidedly woke Pixar films since, Lightyear going on to flop at the box office, grossing just $226 million globally on a reported budget of $200 million.

As a point of comparison, Toy Story 4, which is normal, also features Buzz Lightyear as one of the leads, and it made over a billion dollars at the box office worldwide.

That'll do it for your AM update.

I'm Megan Kelly.

Join me back here for the Megan Kelly Show live on Sirius XM Triumph Channel 111 at Noon East on youtube.com slash Megan Kelly and on all podcast platforms.

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