On the first day of Donald Trump’s second term, the administration fired Adm. Linda Fagan, the commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard, evicting her from her home with three hours of notice. That Fagan was a four-star admiral and the first woman to lead a branch of the military apparently meant very little to the White House.
By way of an explanation, officials said the admiral’s ouster was in part the result of her support for diversity initiatives, which necessarily made her “woke” in the eyes of the Republican administration.
Ten months later, conditions inside the Coast Guard are … different. The Washington Post reported:
The U.S. 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 that more than 400,000 U.S. troops who died fighting against 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.
According to the Post’s report, which has not been independently verified by NS NOW, the new policy — which also applies to nooses — is set to take effect Dec. 15. That said, if this new policy sparks significant pushback from the public and Congress (as seems likely), no one should be surprised when the Coast Guard’s leadership reverses course on its plan long before it is implemented.
What’s more, Tricia McLaughlin, the assistant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security described the Post’s reporting as “an absolute ludicrous lie,” “unequivocally false” and “fake crap.”
For now, however, we’re looking at a Republican administration in which a Pride flag can get someone fired, but swastikas are apparently deemed merely “potentially divisive.” The Post’s report added:
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.’ The Post spoke to a Coast Guard official who took issue with the obviously flawed 45-day window, saying, “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?” What’s more, the Coast Guard’s apparent shift comes a week after the president rewarded right-wing lawyer Paul Ingrassia with a new job, even after learning about Ingrassia’s acknowledgement of his “Nazi streak.” It also comes a month after the U.S. Capitol Police opened an investigation into an American flag that was altered to include a swastika and displayed inside the office of a GOP congressman. (Rep. Dave Taylor of Ohio condemned the display.) In the wake of Tucker Carlson’s recent interview with Nick Fuentes, there’s been an intensifying public conversation about the right’s antisemitism crisis. The Coast Guard’s reclassification of swastikas suggests the crisis is accelerating. This post has been updated to include a denial from the Department of Homeland Security.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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