In a sudden reversal, President Trump on Tuesday ordered flags to be flown at half-staff in honor of the five Capital Gazette newspaper employees who were shot and killed last week.
Trump had initially declined a request from Annapolis, Maryland, mayor Gavin Buckley, who asked the president to acknowledge the victims with lowered flags, as the White House did after previous mass shootings. The rejection drew criticism, with some calling Trump "petty" and drawing parallels between the refusal and the president's prior criticism of the news media industry.
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