Upside-down American flags are popping up in actual life and on-line in assist of Donald Trump after a New York jury returned with a responsible verdict on all 34 counts towards the previous president and presumptive Republican nominee.
The image, in style amongst some avid Trump supporters since his 2020 election defeat, has made a resurgence throughout conservative social media accounts after he was convicted on Thursday of falsifying paperwork to cowl up a hush cash fee to porn star Stormy Daniels to illegally affect the 2016 election.
Soon after Thursday’s verdict, Trump loyalists, together with Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, posted an inverted U.S. flag on X, previously often known as Twitter. By Saturday afternoon, greater than 10 million individuals had considered it.
Other high-profile supporters embody The Heritage Foundation, the conservative group behind the GOP’s Project 2025 playbook. According to Reuters, a Miami chapter of the Proud Boys, a far-right militant group, posted an inverted flag on the message channel Telegram, as did the same group referred to as Patriot Voice, with the phrases: “In dire distress.”
The flag has change into extra outstanding in pro-Trump circles after the New York Times reported that the inverted flag was flown outdoors the Virginia dwelling of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito simply over every week after the Jan. 6, 2021 assault on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters who falsely consider the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Trump by Joe Biden.
Alito has since claimed that this was all his spouse’s resolution, ensuing from a dispute with neighbors, regardless of the timeline of the alleged incidents not lining up. The justice has additionally refused to recuse himself from a pair of upcoming circumstances regarding Jan. 6 and presidential immunity.
Trump was thrilled when he discovered that Alito would keep on the bench.
“Congratulations to United States Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito for showing the INTELLIGENCE, COURAGE, and ‘GUTS’ to refuse stepping aside from making a decision on anything January 6th related,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “All U.S. Judges, Justices, and Leaders should have such GRIT.”
The U.S. flag code, although not legally enforceable, states that flags shouldn’t be flipped except they painting an indication of “dire distress.”
Still, it was used as a logo of protest lengthy earlier than MAGA supporters began using it. The upside-down flag was utilized within the anti-slavery motion within the mid-1800s. Anti-war demonstrations in the course of the Vietnam War used the inverted emblem to criticize the U.S. authorities’s actions overseas.
In 1974—three many years earlier than Alito grew to become a Supreme Court justice—the courtroom dominated in favor of a college pupil who hung an American flag with peace symbols on it the wrong way up after the killing of 4 anti-Vietnam War protesters.
Following the decision, Trump supporters on-line have additionally been calling for a civil warfare and revolution—a turning towards the “traitors” who celebrated the conviction of their candidate.
Flying subsequent to the upside-down flag outdoors of Trump Tower on Friday was one other flag inscribed with a easy message: “Trump or Death,” with the previous president’s face sandwiched between the years 1776 and 2024.