In reversal, Coast Guard again classifies swastikas, nooses as hate symbols
The U.S. Coast Guard issued a new, more stringent policy on hate symbols including the swastika Thursday night, prohibiting “divisive or hate symbols or flags.” The change came hours after The Washington Post reported that the service would instead classify such symbols as “potentially divisive” under new guidelines set to be released next month.
“The Coast Guard does not tolerate the display of divisive or hate symbols and flags, including those identified with oppression or hatred. These symbols reflect hateful and prohibited conduct that undermines unit cohesion,” the Coast Guard’s new policy says.
In a news release, the agency said the latest guidelines were not an update but “a new policy to combat any misinformation and double down that the U.S. Coast Guard forbids these symbols.”
The prohibited symbols and flags include a noose, a swastika and “any symbols or flags co-opted or adopted by hate-based groups,” according to the new policy.
The Post reported earlier Thursday that the Coast Guard would no longer classify the swastika - an emblem of fascism and white supremacy inextricably linked to the murder of millions of Jews and the deaths of more than 400,000 U.S. troops who died fighting in World War II - as a hate symbol, under a policy that had been set to take effect Dec. 15.
Instead, the Coast Guard would have classified the Nazi-era insignia as “potentially divisive.” That policy would similarly have downgraded the classification of nooses and the Confederate flag, though display of the latter would have remained banned, except in certain historical displays or artwork where it was a minor element, according to documents reviewed by The Post.
Changing policies
Here is an excerpt from the Thursday memorandum:
“Divisive or hate symbols and flags are prohibited. These symbols and flags include, but are not limited to, the following: a noose, a swastika, and any symbols or flags co-opted or adopted by hate-based groups as representations of supremacy, racial or religious intolerance, anti-semitism, or any other improper bias.”
Here is an excerpt from the November 2025 U.S. Coast Guard policy document, Page 36:
“Potentially divisive symbols and flags include, but are not limited to, the following: a noose, a swastika, and any symbols or flags co-opted or adopted by hate-based groups as representations of supremacy, racial or religious intolerance, or other bias.”
And her is an excerpt from the February 2023 U.S. Coast Guard policy document, Page 21“
“The following is a non-exhaustive list of symbols whose display, presentation, creation, or depiction would constitute a potential hate incident: a noose, a swastika, supremacist symbols, Confederate symbols or flags, and anti-Semitic symbols. The display of these types of symbols constitutes a potential hate incident because hate-based groups have co-opted or adopted them as symbols of supremacy, racial or religious intolerance, or other bias.”
The Coast Guard did not immediately respond to an early Friday request for comment on the reversal.
‘Protections against bigotry’
Under existing guidance, which was introduced in 2019 after a Coast Guard officer was charged with plotting a large-scale attack against Democratic lawmakers, commanders were able to order the removal of swastikas, nooses or other symbols, even if they did not rise to the level of a hate incident.
Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nevada), co-chair of the Senate Bipartisan Task Force for Combating Antisemitism, on Thursday condemned the Coast Guard’s decision to no longer classify the displays as “potential hate incidents,” arguing that the policy would overturn “important protections against bigotry and could allow for horrifically hateful symbols like swastikas and nooses to be inexplicably permitted to be displayed.”
“At a time when antisemitism is rising in the United States and around the world, relaxing policies aimed at fighting hate crimes not only sends the wrong message to the men and women of our Coast Guard, but it puts their safety at risk,” she said in a statement to The Post on Thursday.
A Coast Guard official, who had seen that proposal and spoke on the condition of anonymity because of fear of reprisal, had told The Post that the policy changes were chilling: “We don’t deserve the trust of the nation if we’re unclear about the divisiveness of swastikas.”
The Coast Guard, which is a branch of the U.S. military but falls under the Department of Homeland Security, has been impacted by the Trump administration’s dismissals of senior leaders and broader targeting of military culture.
The Coast Guard’s former commandant and the first woman to lead a branch of the U.S. military, Adm. Linda Fagan, was removed from her position on President Donald Trump’s first day in office, with administration officials citing her focus on diversity initiatives and her handling of sexual assault investigations.