Bipartisan Outrage Over Noem's Swastika Embrace
Lawmakers react with bipartisan disgust to the Coast Guard's policy change removing hate symbol status from swastikas and nooses.
WASHINGTON — Lawmakers from both parties blasted Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Thursday after Washington Post reported that the U.S. Coast Guard will no longer classify swastikas and nooses as hate symbols, instead downgrading them to “potentially divisive” under a new policy set to take effect December 15.
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The policy shift drew swift condemnation on Capitol Hill, with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer calling it “disgusting” and “more encouragement from the Republicans for extremism”. Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) went further, declaring that “Secretary Noem is a disaster” and is “totally incompetent,” while accusing her of “overseeing one of the broadest offenses against human and civil rights in the republic’s modern history”.
Even Republican senators expressed skepticism about the reclassification. Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) told reporters the policy change “seems ill-advised,” while Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) said “that would not seem to be something I agree with”.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) called the move “incomprehensible and utterly antithetical to basic norms and values,” while Sen. Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD) described the policy as “ludicrous but consistent with what we’ve seen,” adding that “every week we see a further decline away from what is human, right, justice and decent”.
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi questioned Noem’s fitness for office entirely, saying “something’s very wrong with her” and pointing to the policy as “another indication of her instability”.
Swastikas Now Called ‘Potentially Divisive’ Under Coast Guard Guidelines
Under the new Coast Guard policy, symbols including swastikas, nooses, and the Confederate flag—historically classified as hate symbols that could trigger investigations—will now be treated as “potentially divisive”. While the Confederate flag remains banned from display, the reclassification significantly weakens enforcement mechanisms for other symbols.
According to documents obtained by The Washington Post, the policy eliminates the concept of “hate incidents” from Coast Guard regulations entirely. “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 new guidelines state. “The terminology ‘hate incident’ is no longer present in policy”.
The changes align the Coast Guard with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s September directive calling for a “review and overhaul” of military harassment policies, which he claimed were “overly broad” and jeopardized “combat readiness”.
A Coast Guard official who reviewed the new policy told The Washington Post the changes were “chilling.” “We don’t deserve the trust of the nation if we’re unclear about the divisiveness of swastikas,” the official said, speaking anonymously due to fear of reprisal.
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Noem’s Pattern of Racism and Xenophobia
The Coast Guard policy shift is the latest in a series of actions by Noem that critics say demonstrate a pattern of racial animus and xenophobia.
Federal judges have twice accused Noem of making decisions rooted in racism. In July, U.S. District Judge Trina Thompson wrote that Noem’s termination of Temporary Protected Status for immigrants from Honduras, Nepal, and Nicaragua appeared motivated by “racial and discriminatory animus”. “Color is neither a poison nor a crime,” Thompson wrote, extending protections for more than 60,000 immigrants until at least November.
Thompson accused Noem of using language reflecting “the discriminatory belief that certain immigrant populations will replace the white population,” citing both Noem’s statements and President Trump’s claim that immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country”.
In March, U.S. District Judge Edward Chen similarly found that Noem’s rationale for ending protections for Venezuelans was “a classic example of racism”. Chen wrote that the administration’s “generalization of criminality to the Venezuelan TPS population as a whole is baseless and smacks of racism predicated on generalized false stereotypes”.
Native American advocacy groups have also condemned Noem’s actions. NDN Collective responded to her executive order restricting critical race theory by stating: “Noem is doubling down on the continuation of white supremacy, which flies in the face of the collective good. Time and again, her policies perpetuate a legacy of racism in a state where Indigenous people already suffer daily racial assaults in both covert and overt ways”.
Illinois Congressman Sean Casten directly accused Noem of harboring racist views, stating in August: “Kristi Noem’s racism and xenophobia have no place in Illinois’ 6th Congressional District”.
Mother Jones documented how Noem has weaponized traditional femininity while advancing fascist policies, noting the “glaring racism in the suggestion that Noem, a white woman, is the victim” while people of color face increasingly harsh immigration enforcement.
Civil Rights Concerns Mount Under Noem’s Leadership
Beyond the symbolic policy changes, Noem has dismantled key civil rights protections within the Department of Homeland Security. In March, she shut down DHS’s 150-person Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, freezing approximately 600 civil rights abuse investigations. “All the oversight in DHS was eliminated today,” one fired worker texted after the announcement.
The closure came as immigration enforcement operations under Noem’s leadership have drawn accusations of constitutional violations. A Supreme Court filing documented that during immigration raids in Los Angeles in June, “teams of armed and masked agents pulled up to car washes, tow yards, farms, and parks and began seizing individuals on sight, often before asking a single question”. The operation resulted in nearly 2,800 immigration-related arrests.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal and Rep. Robert Garcia have demanded that Noem provide information about U.S. citizens detained during immigration operations, noting that despite Noem’s claim that “there’s no American citizens that have been arrested or detained,” public reporting has “repeatedly disproven” this statement. In fact, Noem “was present at an immigration raid in Illinois where two U.S. citizens were detained”.
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Coast Guard’s History With White Supremacy
The policy shift comes despite the Coast Guard’s own troubled history with extremism. In 2019, Coast Guard Lt. Christopher Hasson, a self-described white nationalist, was arrested for plotting a mass terrorist attack targeting Democratic lawmakers including Nancy Pelosi. Prosecutors called him a “domestic terrorist” who had been stockpiling weapons since 2017 and drawing inspiration from Norwegian terrorist Anders Breivik.
Hasson pleaded guilty and was sentenced to more than 13 years in prison in 2020. His rights to Coast Guard benefits and retirement pay were terminated, and then-Commandant Adm. Karl Schultz declared: “Any semblance of hate, bigotry or advocacy of violence has no place in our Coast Guard. This includes involvement with white supremacist or extremist groups of any type”.
The current policy changes were implemented under acting Commandant Adm. Kevin Lunday, who was nominated by Trump after the January 20 firing of Adm. Linda Fagan—the first woman to lead a branch of the U.S. military. Fagan was dismissed for what the administration cited as her “excessive focus on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion policies”.
In 2007, two noose incidents at Coast Guard facilities drew national attention, including one in which a Black cadet found a noose in his sea bag while aboard a Coast Guard vessel.
The 2019 Coast Guard policy that explicitly classified swastikas, nooses, and Confederate symbols as potential hate incidents was enacted months after the Hasson case.
New Policy Creates Enforcement Gaps
Beyond the reclassification, the new Coast Guard policy creates significant procedural barriers for reporting hate symbols. Service members now have only 45 days to formally report the display of a noose or swastika, whereas previous policy had no deadline and advised immediate reporting.
Under the new guidelines, when a “potentially divisive” symbol is reported, supervisors are instructed to inquire about it and may consult their legal office before ordering its removal—but there is no requirement that it be taken down.
Previous 2019 guidance allowed Coast Guard commanders to order the removal of swastikas, nooses, or other symbols even if the display did not rise to the level of a hate incident.
Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV), a member of the Senate Commerce Committee overseeing the Coast Guard, called on the Trump administration to reverse the policy before it takes 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.
Lunday’s confirmation hearing was held Wednesday, with a committee vote expected soon.
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Noem is wrong: there is nothing potentially divisive about displaying a Swastika. Real Americans are united in finding it despicable.
She's a Nazi.