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The Coast Guard said suggestions it no longer prohibits extremist imagery like swastikas are ‘categorically false’
Josh Marcusin San FranciscoFriday 21 November 2025 01:35 GMTComments
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The U.S. Coast Guard will reportedly no longer consider swastikas, nooses, or the Confederate flag to be hate symbols, according to forthcoming guidelines obtained by The Washington Post, though the service branch denies changing its stance towards such imagery.
Under the guidelines reported by the paper, these symbols will instead be considered “potentially divisive” imagery, though flying the Confederate flag will remain banned.
“We don’t deserve the trust of the nation if we’re unclear about the divisiveness of swastikas,” an anonymous Coast Guard official who has seen the alleged guidelines told the paper.
The Coast Guard strongly disputed that it was softening its policy towards these symbols.
“The claims that the U.S. Coast Guard will no longer classify swastikas, nooses or other extremist imagery as prohibited symbols are categorically false,” Admiral Kevin Lunday, Acting Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard, said in a statement to The Independent. “These symbols have been and remain prohibited in the Coast Guard per policy. Any display, use or promotion of such symbols, as always, will be thoroughly investigated and severely punished.”
open image in galleryThe Washington Post reports that new Coast Guard guidelines taking effect December 15 will downgrade swastikas, nooses, and the Confederate flag from ‘hate symbols’ to ‘potentially divisive’ imagery, though the service branch denies it is softening its stance on hate iconography (Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)The Department of Homeland Security, the parent agency of the Coast Guard, said that reports of a change in its hate symbol policy are “fake.”
“This is an absolute ludicrous lie and unequivocally false,” according to an X post from Tricia McLaughlin, Assistant Secretary at DHS.
Lene Mees de Tricht, a veteran of the Coast Guard and Navy, called the reported proposal “disgusting.” Mees de Tricht, who is Jewish and whose grandfather was injured fighting the Nazis in WWII, said the guidelines were not only personally offensive but strategically foolish and could harm unit cohesion on the high seas.
“It is the obvious and inevitable end of the culture war that Secretary of Defense Hegseth and the Trump admin more broadly have been waging,” Mees de Tricht, who now works with the progressive veterans advocacy group Common Defense, told The Independent. “It’s so incredibly wrongheaded. It almost feels like they’re trying to pick the wrongest opinion you could possibly have and decide to die on that hill.”
open image in galleryThe alleged guidance change comes after other Trump administration shake-ups at the Coast Guard, including the removal of Admiral Linda Fagan, the first woman to lead it, from her post (AP/Getty)Democratic leaders reacted in shock to the alleged potential policy shift.
“Swastikas are a symbol of Nazis and violent antisemitism, and they should NEVER be tolerated in our country — much less by our military,” Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington wrote on X. “This is absolutely horrific.”
“These are things that shouldn’t be up for debate: swastikas, nooses, and the confederate flag,” Rep. Morgan McGarvey of Kentucky wrote on X. “These are hate symbols — there’s no grey area here.”
The alleged change in Coast Guard rules follows a season of upheaval under the Trump administration, which has cracked down against what it sees as rampant wokeness in the nation’s military branches and government agencies.
Admiral Linda Fagan, the first woman to lead the Coast Guard, was removed upon the president taking office, reportedly because the Trump administration took issue with what it believed was an “excessive focus” on diversity and inclusion efforts.
Following Fagan’s removal, the Coast Guard was ordered to suspend the service’s hazing and harassment policy, which included guidance that the swastika, noose, and Confederate flag were “symbols whose display, presentation, creation, or depiction would constitute a potential hate incident,” according to the Post.
Elsewhere in the military, the Trump administration has reinstated images and names tied to Confederate figures.
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