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How did flying the US flag upside down become a pro-Trump protest?
The upside down Stars & Stripes has, very quickly, become a pro-Trump symbol. Here’s why...
As you may have seen when tuning into news regarding former President, Donald Trump, his supporters have taken to flying the flag of the United States upside down.
Flags can be representative for anything from sovereign nations to soccer teams, and the symbol of holding them the wrong way round generally signifies a disrespect for said institution/team/country - so why are Trump supporters waving the famous Stars and Stripes upside down?
The historical explanation is fairly simple: for over 50 years, waving a flag upside down has been a symbol of protest, of not being in agreement with the way things have been done in a certain place. The explanation is said to have come from the times when flags were flown at sea more than on land: a ship would fly their flag upside down if in distress. This practice has evolved over the years to become a protest symbol.
Why are Donald Trump supporters protesting?
It seems that the Trump community have taken the flipped Stars and Stripes as their right-winged symbol of protest at his conviction. Trump became the first ever former president to be convicted when he was found guilty on all 34 accounts of a ‘hush money’ trial. The US code states that “The flag should never be displayed with the union down, except as a signal of dire distress in instances of extreme danger to life or property.”
NRP reports that “soon after the verdict was read, right-wing politicians and pundits including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., Fox News contributor Guy Benson and far-right conspiracy theorist Ali Alexander shared images of an inverted American flag on social media”. As well as this, The Heritage Foundation, a right-wing think tank, posted an image of the US flag hanging upside down above its Washington, DC, headquarters.
They add that “Alexander, organiser of the ‘Stop the Steal’ rally that pushed false claims about the 2020 election, posted the upside-down flag on Telegram with the message: ‘No one is coming to save us. We must.’”
As well as this, the phrases “RIP America” and “Civil War” were seen in conjunction with the flag. While putting the flag on its head has, throughout history, been used by both the left and right as a form of protest, the flipped U.S. flag has indeed seen a huge increase in popularity by those on the extreme right.