Bruce Watson, 72, has flown the American flag for years and nudges the neighbors in his small Massachusetts town to do the same. “I’m very proud of our flag,” the writer told NBC News. “It’s the symbol of ‘We, the People.’” This year, with the country about to turn 250, he plans to add something to the display. “If we do fly the flag, we will also put out signs to make it clear that we are not MAGA,” he said.
NBC News asked readers how they feel about the flag now, at a time when polls suggest patriotism, national pride and optimism about the country’s future are all fraying. The answers split in odd directions.
Upside down, sideways, or not at all
Dina Bannick, 61, lives outside Des Moines, Iowa, and will hang hers upside down, the old signal of distress. “Donald Trump has turned everything upside down, so it makes sense our flag should be upside down,” she said. “We used to be a proud nation. Now, our country is in distress.”
Dave Cavannah of Monson, Massachusetts, sees it differently. The professional woodcarver, 49, is chiseling a statue of Trump that sits half finished on his front lawn. “What’s shameful is that people who hate Trump are flying the flag upside down,” he said. Upside-down flags are not a left-wing invention, either. Trump supporters flew them after his 2020 loss to Joe Biden, and one was spotted outside the Virginia home of Justice Samuel Alito in January 2021, the month pro-Trump rioters stormed the Capitol.
Others have swapped the flag out. Master Sgt. Frank Chappell of the Air National Guard, speaking only for himself, replaced the Stars and Stripes at his home with Pennsylvania’s state flag, saying Trump’s rhetoric and policies are “driving a wedge between Americans.” He will bring the national flag back when the states feel more united. Erin Beltle, 22, said her father will fly the American flag, but she and her mother would pick the Pride flag or an Eagles banner. A Rhode Island teacher who asked not to be named flies the rainbow flag and a Patriots banner instead. She hasn’t flown the national flag since Trump’s re-election in 2024, because with a gay son and a trans son she felt it had become a symbol flown by people who don’t want her children to exist.
Some readers fly it out of habit or pressure. A woman in Newtown, Pennsylvania, said she displays hers mainly because everyone nearby does, and she fears being seen as against the country if she doesn’t. Rebecca Dyer, a mother of five near Salt Lake City, flies hers whoever holds the White House. “This is not about one party or one person,” she said.
Sales are up anyway
Pride may be sagging, but the flag business is not. Carter Beard, president of the New Jersey firm Annin Flagmakers, said orders are up “in the 20% range” as agencies, businesses and individuals buy banners for the semiquincentennial.
The fight over who owns the flag is older than Trump. Until the mid- to late-19th century, flags mostly flew over government buildings, historians say, and Americans started raising their own in earnest only after the Civil War and the 1876 centennial. Since at least Vietnam, both sides have waved it at demonstrations. Princeton historian Sean Wilentz said the hard right “seized the flag” and smeared liberals as unpatriotic, and that Trump has amplified that brand of patriotism.
Alex Wagner, an adjunct professor at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School, argues Americans should embrace it regardless: “It’s not MAGA’s flag. It’s not Trump’s flag. It’s the American flag, and it belongs to all of us.”
