Elections

Donald Trump says flag burners should be punished, perhaps even jailed

A demonstrator burns an American flag during a protest November 25, 2015 in New York City, one day after a grand jury decision not to prosecute a white police officer for the killing of an unarmed black teen in Ferguson, Missouri.
Kena Betancur | AFP | Getty Images

President-elect Donald Trump does not think people should be allowed to burn the American flag and suggested steep consequences, including jail, for those who do.

Trump made his comments on Twitter on Tuesday.

"Nobody should be allowed to burn the American flag - if they do, there must be consequences - perhaps loss of citizenship or year in jail!"

The post is the latest declaration to come from Trump's closely followed tweets.

Currently, burning the flag is protected as freedom of speech under the First Amendment of the Constitution, and the Supreme Court ruled in 1989 that the act is a form of "symbolic speech."

Earlier this month, Hampshire College decided to stop flying the U.S. flag from its main flagpole after it was burned in the wake of the election and subsequently flown at half-staff "to mourn deaths from violence in the U.S. and around the world," the college's president said in a statement, The New York Times reported.