US Coast Guard will no longer classify swastikas and nooses as hate symbols

The US Coast Guard will classify swastikas, nooses and the Confederate flag as "potentially divisive" rather than hate symbols. Photo / Getty Images

The US Coast Guard will 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 US troops who died fighting in World War II – as a hate symbol, according to a new policy that takes effect next month.

Instead, the Coast Guard will classify the Nazi-era insignia as “potentially divisive” under its new guidelines. The policy, set to take effect on December 15, similarly downgrades the classification of nooses and the Confederate flag, though display of the latter remains banned, according to documents reviewed by the Washington Post.

Certain historical displays or artwork where the Confederate flag is a minor element are still permissible, according to the policy.

Though the Coast Guard is not part of the Defence Department, the service has been reworking its policies to align with the Trump administration’s changing tolerances for hazing and harassment within the US military. In September, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth directed a review and overhaul of those policies, calling the military’s existing standards “overly broad” and saying they jeopardise troops’ combat readiness.

The Coast Guard declined to provide comment before publication of this report. Subsequent to publication, Coast Guard spokeswoman Jennifer Plozai said by phone that the service disagreed with the Post’s reporting but intended to look into the policy changes.

“We will be reviewing the language,” Plozai said.

US Coast Guard Admiral Kevin Lunday. Photo / Getty Images

In a statement attributed to Admiral Kevin Lunday, the service’s acting commandant, the Coast Guard declined to address why its new policy no longer characterises swastikas, nooses and the Confederate flag as hate symbols. Lunday affirmed, though, that such symbols “and other extremist or racist imagery violate our core values and are treated with the seriousness they warrant under current policy”.

“Any display, use or promotion of such symbols, as always, will be thoroughly investigated and severely punished,” Lunday’s statement said.

An excerpt from a November 2025 US Coast Guard policy document (page 36) reads: “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.”

An excerpt from February 2023 US Coast Guard policy document (page 21) reads: “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 hatebased groups have co-opted or adopted them as symbols of supremacy, racial or religious intolerance, or other bias.”

A Coast Guard official who had seen the new wording called the policy changes chilling.

“We don’t deserve the trust of the nation if we’re unclear about the divisiveness of swastikas,” the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of fear of reprisal.

The Coast Guard is a military service branch under the Department of Homeland Security and the purview of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L Noem. But the service, which has been central to President Donald Trump’s increased focus on homeland defence, has been swept up like the others in the administration’s rash of leadership firings and broader targeting of military culture.

Former Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Linda Fagan, the first woman to lead a branch of the US military, was fired on Trump’s first day in office for what administration officials said then was her focus on diversity initiatives and her handling of sexual assault investigations.

Within days, Lunday ordered the suspension of the Coast Guard’s hazing and harassment policy that, among its other guidance, said explicitly that the swastika was among a “list of symbols whose display, presentation, creation, or depiction would constitute a potential hate incident”. Nooses and the Confederate flag also matched that description under the previous policy.

Lunday was later nominated by Trump to become the service’s commandant. His Senate confirmation hearing was on Thursday and he was due to meet with lawmakers today. It is unclear when the Senate Commerce, Transportation and Science Committee, which has jurisdiction over the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), may vote to advance Lunday’s nomination.

The new policy drew concern from Senator Jacky Rosen (D-Nevada), a Commerce Committee member who called on the Trump administration to reverse the changes before they take effect.

“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,” Rosen said in a statement to the Post.

In Germany, public display of certain Nazi emblems, such as the swastika, is illegal and can be punished with a fine or imprisonment of up to three years. Exceptions are made if the symbols are used for educational, artistic, scientific or journalistic purposes.

Rosen noted that the wording in the new Coast Guard policy “could allow for horrifically hateful symbols like swastikas and nooses to be inexplicably permitted to be displayed”.

Senator Jacky Rosen criticised the move, citing rising antisemitism and potential risks to Coast Guard personnel. Photo / Getty Images

The new guidance says that if a “potentially divisive” symbol is reported, supervisors should inquire about it. After consulting their legal office they may order the symbol’s removal, but there’s no further guidance requiring that it be taken down.

The new Coast Guard policy also limits the amount of time that service members have to formally report the display of a noose or swastika – which could be enormously problematic for personnel at sea. Like the Navy, Coast Guard members can be deployed for months at a time. The new policy gives them 45 days to report an incident, whereas the previous policy did not have a deadline other than to advise that Coast Guard members who see a potential hate incident “should immediately report it to a member higher in their chain of command”.

That 45-day deadline will have a chilling effect, said the Coast Guard official who had seen the new policy.

“If you are at sea, and your shipmate has a swastika in their rack, and you are a Black person or Jew, and you are going to be stuck at sea with them for the next 60 days, are you going to feel safe reporting that up your chain of command?” this Coast Guard official said.

The director of the advocacy arm of the Reform Movement, one of the major branches of US Judaism, said in a letter to Lunday that “the values that the Coast Guard is sworn to uphold do not allow a permissive attitude toward hate symbols”.

“There is no context aside from the educational or historical in which a swastika is not a hate symbol … It is an emblem that has no place in the US Coast Guard or anywhere else,” Rabbi Jonah Pesner wrote. “The decision to weaken these standards is an indelible stain on the Coast Guard and a violation of the good that our nation stands for.”

Previous guidance put in place in 2019 said Coast Guard commanders could order swastikas, nooses or other symbols to be removed even if it was determined the display did not rise to the level of a hate incident. That policy was enacted months after a Coast Guard officer, Lieutenant Christopher Hasson, was charged with plotting a large-scale attack on Democratic lawmakers, including then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. In securing his conviction, prosecutors cited evidence in his case showing Hasson to be an avowed white nationalist.

The policy change, effective December 15, aligns with the Trump administration’s stance on hazing and harassment. Photo / Getty Images

Over the past several years, each of the other military services has reworked its policies on extremism within the ranks. That was a response, directed by the Biden administration, to the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol by Trump supporters angry that he lost his re-election bid.

Hundreds of military veterans were implicated in the Capitol riot, and subsequent law enforcement investigations found numerous ties between those veterans and extremist groups such as the Proud Boys. Those convicted of crimes associated with their participation in the Capitol attack were pardoned by Trump shortly after he took office this year.

The Pentagon, where Hegseth has argued that prior administrations’ focus on racial diversity has harmed military recruiting, referred questions on the Coast Guard’s policy to the DHS, which did not respond to a request for comment before publication. In a statement sent to the Post after publication, DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin called the story “fake crap”.

The changes to the swastika and noose classification were part of an effort by the Coast Guard to remove the concept of hate incidents from its regulations.

“Conduct previously handled as a potential hate incident, including those involving symbols widely identified with oppression or hatred, is processed as a report of harassment,” the Coast Guard said in its new policy, which was recently published online. “… The terminology ‘hate incident’ is no longer present in policy.”

Each of the military services is also reviewing its harassment policies in response to Hegseth’s directive, though unlike with the Coast Guard, any wording specific to swastikas would probably appear in their separate extremism guidelines. It does not appear there is wording addressing swastikas specifically within those policy documents.

In the Air Force and Army, for example, current policy prohibits “knowingly displaying paraphernalia, words, or symbols in support of extremist activities or in support of groups or organisations that support extremist activities, such as flags, clothing, tattoos, and bumper stickers, whether on or off a military installation”.

In 2007, two incidents involving nooses within the Coast Guard drew national attention. That summer, a Black cadet at the service’s officer training academy found a noose in his sea bag while aboard a Coast Guard vessel. The next month, an instructor discussing race relations in response to the first incident reported that a noose was left in her office.

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