A Flag the Size of a Basketball Court Divides Greenville

The American flag that catapulted Greenville into national news is hard to miss.

It’s 40 feet tall, 80 feet long, and the pole that holds it up is 130 feet tall. Standing outside a Camping World recreational vehicle dealership, the flag audibly flaps in the wind and can be seen from blocks away.

It’s also about 15 times bigger than Greenville’s local ordinances allow. The city started trying to get it taken down not long after Camping World erected it in 2024.

That the dispute divided the town is perhaps unsurprising in this national political moment. Camping World CEO Marcus Lemonis, a colorful personality who had a show on CNBC for several years, argued on Fox News and elsewhere that the flag is a display of patriotism. Many residents agree with him. 

But others think it’s a giant, red-white-and-blue safety hazard—including members of the city council, who say city staff have gotten harassing phone calls and emails ever since it made national headlines. They respect the flag, they say, but rules exist for a reason.

“You have a group of people that say you shouldn’t restrict the American flag,” said Henry Hinton, who hosts a popular local radio show with a conservative fanbase. “And then you have a group of people who say this guy’s a CEO of a major national company—a billionaire who is taunting us by telling the city council that he is not going to adhere to the rules that everyone else has to adhere to.”

In June, the city filed a lawsuit against Camping World over what eventually reached more than $37,000 in unpaid fines. 

Some fans and critics of the big flag grew tired of the bickering. Then, last month, the General Assembly passed H.B. 926, which restricts cities and counties from regulating the size of official government flags flown on private property. State Rep. Tim Reeder, a Pitt County Republican, told television station WITN that he voted for it because it protects “the right to fly the flag unless it had demonstrated safety concerns.”

Greenville officials have had to admit defeat. 

“An unfortunate precedent” is now set, said council member Matthew Scully, who is registered as an unaffiliated voter but called himself a progressive. “If you have enough money and influence, you can get away with things that normal citizens cannot.” 

“Sadly, it may be a sign of the times that we’re living in,” he said.

‘The Profit’

Lemonis was born in Lebanon, adopted by American parents, and raised in Miami. His mother and father owned a Chevrolet dealership, which got him interested in cars, The New York Times wrote in 2016. He became Camping World’s CEO in 2006 when it merged with an RV dealership firm he cofounded, according to The Wall Street Journal. His CNBC show, The Profit, documented him investing in struggling businesses and then trying to turn them around. 

He has brought that showmanship to fights with several cities over gigantic American flags like the one in Greenville. In local outlets and on Fox News, Lemonis has said cities shouldn’t try to restrict his patriotism. He wrote on X in April that “the flag is my love letter to a country that gave me a chance when I didn’t have one.”

Camping World’s promotional materials say the flags, which are made in Texas, are almost the size of a basketball court. “Visible from miles around, we hope our flags inspire customers, employees, and everyone who sees them to celebrate this great country, our freedom, and those who protect it,” its website states.

Lemonis didn’t respond to requests for comment from The Assembly. But he told WITN in March that even if he had to go to jail over it, the flag in Greenville “is not coming down.” In April, he said on Hinton’s Talk of the Town show: “If we lose, I am not taking it down. If the court ordered me to take it down, I’m not taking it down.”

“This is not our first rodeo in the state of North Carolina,” Lemonis added.

In 2019, Camping World subsidiary Gander RV engaged in a similar battle with the city of Statesville over a flag of the same size. Statesville limited flags to 25 by 40 feet—about a third the size of the Old Glory outside Gander RV. The city charged the company $50 a day for the violation.

Months later, the store and Statesville reached a settlement in which the company agreed to pay $14,000 in fines plus legal costs, and the city council agreed to change its rules so the flag was in compliance.

High Flying Flag

In June 2024, Camping World’s contractor applied to Greenville’s city government to hoist a flag in compliance with the local ordinance, which was accepted, city spokesman Brock Letchworth said. 

But when the business hoisted the Stars and Stripes, it was much bigger than the city expected, Scully said. 

In October 2024, the city issued a Notice of Violation to notify the dealership that the flag violated local laws, and as a response, Camping World requested to amend the ordinance. The city council denied their request and the first fine was issued to the company in January of this year.

Later that month, city staff crafted another amendment that would have accommodated the flag. 

In February, the city’s planning and zoning commission voted 5-4 to recommend the city council reject the change. Among the complaints expressed by commission members, according to local news reports, was that the flag couldn’t be flown at half-staff because it was too big for its flagpole. U.S. Flag Code calls for half-staff on Memorial Day and when the president or governor declares a time of mourning. (Flag code is an official custom; violations don’t carry punishments but they are frowned upon.)

In March, the city council rejected the proposed change, which would have let Camping World keep the flag if it sought new permits, got inspections, and paid more than $8,000 in outstanding fines, The Daily Reflector reported. Because the flag sits at one of the busiest intersections in Greenville, some council members worried it could distract drivers.

Others thought taking on Lemonis and Camping World would end badly. When the council voted 4-2 later in March to sue Camping World, Les Robinson, a local criminal attorney and council member, voted no.

“I support 100% the U.S. flag and I will never be party to a lawsuit that wants to take it down,” he said at the meeting, saying he had also considered how much the lawsuit would cost and how long it would take. Robinson didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Mayor P.J. Connelly, who also didn’t respond to requests for comment, did not vote but said he also disagreed with filing the lawsuit. “I’m totally against it myself,” he said after Robinson spoke. “I think there’s other things we can be spending our time and taxpayer funds on.”

Scully, who came to the city 25 years ago to attend East Carolina University and now owns The Scullery Coffee House and Creamery downtown, voted to sue. Camping World, he said in a recent interview, “was setting us up for failure.” 

“They’ve been spinning it in the national news, telling people that the city of Greenville is against the flag instead of telling them what really happened,” Scully said in an interview. “We’re all very patriotic. We love our country. We’re serving our country on council and serving our community.”

Near to his restaurant, Scully said, a high-rise Hilton Garden Inn requested an exception to local ordinances to allow for a larger sign. The council approved it, Scully said, which is the way he said business and government should work.

“Councils are very pro-business and want to make things work—to bring business and jobs to the area and make their economies better. But they didn’t do that,” he said of Camping World.

In April, Camping World said it would close another Greenville location. Local news reported that Lemonis told employees it was because of business impacts stemming from the dispute. Evangelist Franklin Graham posted on Facebook asking followers to “pray for Mr. Lemonis as this battle continues.” The post got 10,000 comments.

Some in Greenville were skeptical; the company had reported $6.1 billion in revenue in 2024. 

Hinton tried to broker a deal. In an interview on his radio show, he proposed Lemonis donate $50,000 to the Maynard Children’s Hospital at ECU Health Medical Center as a gesture of goodwill. Lemonis agreed, though he said that he wouldn’t do it as “quid pro quo.” (The Assembly asked the hospital if Lemonis had donated; a spokesperson declined to comment citing donor confidentiality rules.)

Hinton also wrote to city council members urging them to amend the flag rules, arguing that Greenville was getting bad press and could be swamped with legal fees.

“I think we should do what the city of Statesville did—fine him, make him pay a certain amount of money, negotiate what that is, and then change the ordinance,” Hinton told The Assembly. 

“He’s got enough money to bury the city of Greenville in this lawsuit, I can tell you that,” he said. “This calls for common sense and not to take the taxpayers’ money and throw it away on a lawsuit that they’re not going to win.”

Feelings among Greenville residents were mixed. “Wasting our taxpayer money to take the guy to court over an American flag is sinful to me,” said Sheila Hall, a longtime resident.

“No one should be above the law,” said state Rep. Gloristine Brown, a Democrat who represents Pitt County. “No matter how poor or how rich you are. If we have laws in place, we all should abide by the laws because that’s why they were put in place.”

Overruled

Brown said she first heard that the General Assembly was planning to wade into the dispute from state Sen. Kandie Smith, a fellow Democrat from Pitt County. The flag provision was tucked into a bill that would update various environmental and construction regulations, licensing requirements, and more.

The language the Republican-led General Assembly ultimately adopted last month prohibits cities from restricting private property owners from displaying American flags unless it’s necessary “to protect public health and safety.” Cities must document those concerns in writing, and if traffic is the source of the concern, they need a site study by the Department of Transportation to back up the assertion.

The law wipes out any preexisting fines or litigation pending over flags, including Greenville’s.

The Assembly reached out to H.B. 926’s primary authors—Reps. Dennis Riddell, Jeff Zenger, and Allen Chesser—but none responded to requests for comment.

The city council voted unanimously this month to drop the lawsuit, which they had paused in June after the state House passed an earlier version of the bill. The city spent around $25,000 for outside representation, Scully said.

Smith agreed that losing cities’ authority to enforce ordinances sets a bad precedent. “If you want to be honest, I don’t care how big the flag is, if that’s what they want,” she said. “If we’re not gonna let any other citizen do anything they want to do … then we shouldn’t do that for this business owner.” 

With municipal elections around the corner, this situation has become a point of contention for city officials. Scully, who is finishing his first term and is running again, said the most debated local issues used to be affordable housing and public transit. The flag has proven the most controversial. 

“On the one hand it seems silly, because it’s just a flag. Let it fly,” he said. “But on the other hand, this business came into our community and just thought that they could do whatever they want because they have enough power and influence, and I don’t agree with that.”

Eleazar Yisrael is a recent graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill who has been reporting in Eastern North Carolina.