Trump really did use creative license when coloring in the American flag

President Trump colors in the American flag incorrectly
(Image credit: Screenshot/YouTube/White House via MSNBC)

On the one hand, this is all pretty silly. Last week, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar tweeted some photos of President Trump and first lady Melania Trump visiting a children's hospital in Columbus, Ohio, to talk about the opioid crisis. One of the photos showed the president coloring the American flag ... incorrectly.

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On the other hand, that is kind of a strange thing for a president to do. So on Tuesday, MSNBC's Chris Hayes took a shallow dive into whether that photo could possibly be real, given Trump's well-known love of, and demands of respect for, the American flag. It's real, Hayes found, but Trump wasn't doing anything kooky like drawing the Russian flag.

Brown? We should probably applaud Trump's creative freedom here. Maybe he can follow George W. Bush's lead and take up visual arts after he's left office. You can't golf all the time.

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Peter Weber

Peter Weber is a senior editor at TheWeek.com, and has handled the editorial night shift since the website launched in 2008. A graduate of Northwestern University, Peter has worked at Facts on File and The New York Times Magazine. He speaks Spanish and Italian and plays bass and rhythm cello in an Austin rock band. Follow him on Twitter.