Climbers hang upside-down flag at Yosemite in protest of layoffs
Protesters hung an upside-down American flag at Yosemite National Park over the weekend after the Trump administration’s layoffs.
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The claim: Staffers hung upside-down US flag at Yosemite National Park
A Feb. 23 Instagram post (direct link, archive link) by The Other 98% includes an image showing an upside-down US flag draped alongside a mountain.
“National Park Service rangers have pulled off a brilliant action in Yosemite Park on El Capitan by deploying a massive American flag upside down in the traditional sign of distress or extreme emergencies,” reads the caption on the post.
It was liked more than 500,000 times in four days. Other versions of the claim spread widely on Threads.
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The Department of the Interior said it was aware of the display, which was only up temporarily. The group responsible for the display included National Park Service employees, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
Department of the Interior calls protest ‘unauthorized and inappropriate’
Around 1,000 National Park Service employees were laid off on Feb. 14, following President Donald Trump’s executive order aimed at shrinking the federal government, USA TODAY reported. Tens of thousands of other federal employees have been laid off since Trump took office, including workers at the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Federal Aviation Administration.
The image shown in the Instagram post does depict a protest of Trump’s layoffs and was included in an article by the San Francisco Chronicle about the Feb. 22 incident at Yosemite National Park.
The Department of the Interior told USA TODAY it was “aware of the unauthorized and inappropriate display” at the park.
“The Department and National Park Service does not condone such actions, and the flag was removed as soon as possible,” spokesperson J. Elizabeth Peace said. “We take the protection of our national parks seriously and will not tolerate behavior that undermines their integrity.”
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The group of park service employees who participated in the demonstration included Yosemite National Park maintenance mechanic Gavin Carpenter, who told the San Francisco Chronicle he supplied the upside-down flag.
“It’s super important we take care of (the parks), and we’re losing people here, and it’s not sustainable if we want to keep the parks open,” Carpenter said, according to the outlet.
U.S. Flag Code states the national flag should never be displayed upside down “except as a signal of dire distress in instances of extreme danger to life or property.”
The upside-down flag has also been used in protest of former President Joe Biden’s administration. It was flown during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, for example, and after Trump was convicted of 34 felonies in May 2024.
USA TODAY reached out to the user who shared the post but did not immediately receive a response. The National Park Service did not provide an on-the-record comment.
Snopes also addressed the claim.
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