What an upside-down flag really means

Americans have used the upside-down U.S. flag as a symbol of protest before, but the way it’s being used today, by right-wing protesters, represents something unique.



Rather than a symbol of protest for a larger movement, it’s being used in service to a single man; and rather than isolated instances of its use, it’s an increasingly popular symbol that reaches all the way to the home of someone at the highest level of government.



After a jury found Donald Trump guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records last week, some Republicans aligned with him turned the U.S. flag upside down, including Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia. Greene posted an inverted flag illustration on X (formerly Twitter) while the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, temporarily flew an upside-down flag at its Washington, D.C., headquarters.



The U.S. flag code states: “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.” But Americans have long had their own interpretation of “dire distress.” An inverted flag was used to protest slavery at a July 4, 1854, rally held by the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society; it was used to protest the Vietnam War in the 1960s and ‘70s; and in 1998, to protest the mistreatment of Native Americans by members of the American Indian Movement (AIM).



Wounded Knee, 1973. [Photo: UPI Color/Bettmann Archive/Getty Images]



And in recent years, upside-down flags have been flown in support of Trump’s claims that the 2020 election was stolen and that his recent conviction was politically motivated. 



Upside-down flags were flown during the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, and the New York Times reported last month that a flag was flown upside down at the home of  U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito  in the days before President Joe Biden’s inauguration, violating ethics rules that justices avoid even the appearance of bias.



There’s no doubt that many who fly the flag upside down since Trump’s 2020 loss are sincere about their belief that the U.S. is in distress, but they’re also misinformed.



A demonstrator with an upside-down US flag is surrounded by photographers during the “Justice for J6” rally in Washington, DC, on September 18, 2021, in support of the pro-Trump rioters who ransacked the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. [Photo: Eric Baradat/AFP/Getty Images]



Trump’s conviction was a state case and it wasn’t decided by Biden or his administration, but by a jury Trump’s own legal team agreed to. And with just 88 instances of voter fraud linked to the 2020 election found in the Heritage Foundation’s own database of election fraud cases , it’s clear that Heritage’s own data disputes the claim that widespread fraud altered the outcome of the 2020 election.



An upside-down flag is among the flags carried by rioters as they clash with police at the Capitol on January 6th, 2021. [Photo: Roberto Schmidt/AFP/Getty Images]



When, in 1974, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered then-President Richard Nixon to release White House tapes linking him to efforts to cover up the Watergate break-in done to help him win the election, Republicans didn’t turn the flag upside down. Instead, conservative Republican Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona said, “This man must go.”



Fifty years later, after a jury found Trump guilty of falsifying business documents to cover up an affair to help him win an election, today’s MAGA Republicans (who I’d argue are half as conservative as Goldwater and less stubbornly principled too), said “never surrender” with a link to a fundraising landing page .



This story was republished with permission from Yello , a newsletter covering the intersection of design and politics.