06/04/2024

As a Form of Right-wing Protest, the Upside-down American Flag Goes Mainstream

This comes on the heels of the 34-count conviction of Donald Trump

After former President Donald Trump's historic felony conviction last week, many of his supporters protested the verdict by posting images of an American flag flipped upside down on social media.

A Manhattan jury on Thursday found Trump guilty of falsifying business records in order to influence the 2016 presidential election. 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. Alexander, organizer 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."

The phrases "RIP America" and "Civil War," which began trending on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, were also seen alongside flipped flags and messages of outrage at the verdict.

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