The country music legend Dolly Parton passed away on Tuesday at the age of 80, and now President Donald Trump has commented on the news, announcing that flags will be lowered for a week.
“Very sad to report that Dolly Parton, one of the greatest Country singers, and far beyond, EVER, has just passed away. This is a true loss for millions of people,” Trump wrote on Truth Social Tuesday. “There has never been anyone like her, and never will. In her honor, I am lowering the American flag throughout the United States for a one week period beginning tonight at 6:00PM. Rest in Peace, Dolly! The World loves you.”
Parton was among the celebrities who did not involve herself much in politics, and was beloved by people across the political spectrum. In 2021, it was revealed that she had turned down the Presidential Medal of Freedom during Trump’s first term, although not for political reasons.
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“I couldn’t accept it because my husband was ill and then they asked me again about it and I wouldn’t travel because of the COVID,” Dolly told the Today Show in 2021. She was asked again during the Biden Administration, but then stated, “now I feel like if I take it, I’ll be doing politics, so I’m not sure.”
A message from the family of Dolly Parton. pic.twitter.com/9DNRgRx0uH
— Dolly Parton (@DollyParton) August 25, 2026
“But I don’t work for those awards,” she added. “It’d be nice but I’m not sure that I even deserve it. But it’s a nice compliment for people to think that I might deserve it.”
“Everybody knows I don’t do politics — because my mother was a Democrat and my daddy was a Republican, so I’m a hypocrat,” Parton had said in a 2016 interview on Fox News.
Parton, however, was heavily involved in charitable efforts, including donating $1 million to support coronavirus research during the pandemic. She also donated more than 100 million children’s books over more than a quarter century through Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library.
Photo courtesy of an X screenshot.
