If the flag were being used to advance the cause of racism today, I would object to it. It isn’t.
People have a right to self identification, and I think Trump was wrong to do that.
IMO (and I could be wrong), people see the flag as a symbol of the South and not in the context of racial inequality. They merely see it as a symbol of being a down home boy of the South.
It wasn’t broadly used during the war, and it never meant what folks are trying to say it does now or did then.
It was a company banner as I understand it. I do not think the men fighting in that company were doing it to preserve slavery. I think it was more of a state’s rights issue. It was the Confederacy against the Union Army, and they were loyal to the Confederacy.
I’d have to dig a lot deeper to confirm this. This is however my perception.