The U.S. Coast Guard has reversed course on its controversial move to reclassify the Nazi-era swastika insignia and nooses as “potentially divisive,” following widespread backlash.
The Washington Post first picked up on the policy change, which was written earlier this month and was set to take effect on Dec. 15. Just hours later, the Post’s Pentagon correspondent Tara Copp reported that the Coast Guard had released a new policy late Thursday that re-establishes that it “specifically sees swastikas and nooses as hate symbols” and that they are “expressly prohibited.”
The military service operates under the Department of Homeland Security. The Trump administration has vowed to take “forceful and unprecedented steps to combat anti-semitism” but the Republican Party has been accused of growing more tolerant of Nazis.
“Divisive or hate symbols and flags are prohibited,” the latest Coast Guard policy said, noting that these would include “a noose, a swastika, and any symbols or flags co-opted or adopted by hate-based groups.”
It said the display of any divisive or hate symbol “is prohibited and shall be removed from all Coast Guard workplaces, facilities, and assets.”
“This is not an updated policy but a new policy to combat any misinformation and double down that the U.S. Coast Guard forbids these symbols,” a Coast Guard press release said.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the U.S. Coast Guard and the Department of Homeland Security for comment.
The Coast Guard’s move to reclassify the Nazi symbols as “potentially divisive” marked a major shift from its 2019 policy under which the insignia were “widely identified with oppression or hatred” and said displaying them was “a potential hate incident.”
It grew widespread criticism from Democratic lawmakers on social media, including Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts, who accused the Trump administration of normalizing hate.
“This is disgusting,” he posted on X. “Swastikas, nooses, Confederate flags are symbols of hate.”
“Lynching is a federal hate crime,” wrote Democratic congressman Rick Larsen. “The world defeated the Nazis in 1945. The debate on these symbols is over. They symbolize hate. Coast Guard: be better.”
Earlier this month on CNN, former Republican congressman Adam Kinzinger blasted the Heritage Foundation for defending Tucker Carlson’s interview with Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes, and said that Trump invited him to Mar-a-Lago “to have lunch with him and Kanye.”
He suggested that a “firewall” that once considered certain “Nazi-ish” individuals as “not part of us” was “crumbling.”
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
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