Donald J. Trump, the Man, the Flag

When Donald J. Trump held his post-conviction news conference at Trump Tower after his hush-money trial in May, he did so in his signature red (tie), white (shirt) and blue (suit), standing before so many flags he looked like a head bobbing in an ocean of patriotic hues.

It was a bit of star-spangled scenography for the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, who, more than any of his predecessors, has embraced the flag as his official fashion inspiration, using imagery to make it a synonym for himself. (One of his favorite personal factoids is that today, June 14, happens to be both his birthday and Flag Day, the date designated by Woodrow Wilson in 1916 to commemorate the official adoption of the American flag.)

In almost every major appearance, Mr. Trump stands planted in a forest of flags — 54 of them on the last night of the 2020 Republican convention alone. Descending from Trump Air, he passes beneath an imposing flag waving proudly on the tail, the colors echoed in his clothing as if he alighted from a flying flag himself.

“Most presidents have one flag behind them when they speak, maybe two,” said Lindsay M. Chervinsky, a senior fellow at the Center for Presidential History at Southern Methodist University and the author of the coming book “Making the Presidency.”