President Donald Trump on Tuesday offered the example of a 12-year-old California boy who sparked a movement to place flags on every veterans' grave as the reason "why we proudly stand for the national anthem."
In his first State of the Union speech, the president touched on a sports-world controversy sparked by former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick's refusal to stand during the playing of the national anthem in 2016 — a protest of racial injustice that continued during the 2017 NFL season.
"Here tonight is Preston Sharp, a 12-year-old boy from Redding, California, who noticed that veterans' graves were not marked with flags on Veterans Day," Trump said. "He decided all by himself to change that and started a movement that has now placed 40,000 flags at the graves of our great heroes."
Trump continued: "Young patriots like Preston teach all of us about our civic duty as Americans…. Preston's reverence for those who have served our nation reminds us of why we salute our flag, why we put our hands on our hearts for the pledge of allegiance, and why we proudly stand for the national anthem."