Despite initially denying that it would do so, the U.S. Coast Guard has changed its workplace harassment policies to downgrade swastikas and nooses — symbols which threaten violence against Jewish people, Black people, and their allies — from “overt hate symbols” to “potentially divisive” ones.

When The Washington Post first reported this changing policy on November 20, the Department of Homeland Security (which oversees the Coast Guard) called the report “fake news.” Hours after the Post‘s report, the Coast Guard’s acting commandant Adm. Kevin Lunday issued a memo denouncing the symbols and saying that they both remain prohibited.

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However, the Coast Guard put the new policy into effect on Monday despite its initial claims. The change comes as numerous instances of antisemitism in the Republican Party. The Trump administration has offered no explanation for the changed policy, though its Department of Defense has backtracked a Biden-era policy removing the names of pro-slavery Confederate generals from military bases.

Early into Trump’s second term, the Secretaries of State and Homeland Security made huge cuts in their departments eliminating positions focused on tracking racially motivated violent extremism and domestic terrorism, both of which are predominantly white and right-wing.

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.@CNN is spreading FAKE NEWS. It has ALWAYS been forbidden for swastikas or nooses to be displayed in the Coast Guard.⁰⁰There is NO “reversal.” The 2025 policy is not changing—USCG issued a lawful order that doubles down on our *current* policies prohibiting the display,… pic.twitter.com/OEvJZHvFDx

— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) November 21, 2025

It’s worth noting that Adm. Lunday replaced Adm. Linda Fagan, a woman who was ostensibly ousted because of her “excessive focus” on “non-mission-critical” diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.

“What’s really disturbing is, at this moment, when there is a whitewashing of Nazis amongst some on the far right, and Churchill is painted as the devil incarnate when it comes to World War II, to take the swastika and call it ‘potentially divisive’ is hard to fathom,” said Deborah Lipstadt, who served as President Joe Biden’s special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism. “Most importantly, the swastika was the symbol hundreds of thousands of Americans fought and gave their lives to defeat. It is not ‘potentially divisive,’ it’s a hate symbol.”

In October, Republican leaders nationwide were caught proclaiming “I love Hitler” and discussing killing opponents in gas chambers in a private chat. Also that month, U.S. Border Patrol published a video that used a song containing the word, “k**e,” an antisemitic slur.

That same month, MAGA Rep. Dave Taylor (R-OH) was caught with a swastika symbol posted on his congressional office wall. He claimed it was put there as part of a “ruse” carried out by “an unidentified group or individual” against Republican Congress members.

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