The State Department has implemented a landmark “One Flag Policy” policy barring U.S. outposts at home and abroad from flying any other flag but the Stars and Stripes.
The newly issued order, effectively bans American facilities from displaying flags affiliated with left-wing movements, including the pride and Black Lives Matter flags that flew over U.S. government buildings under Biden.
“Starting immediately, only the United States of America flag is authorized to be flown or displayed at U.S. facilities, both domestic and abroad, and featured in U.S. government content,” the order states.
“The flag of the United States of America united all Americans under the universal principles of justice, liberty, and democracy.
These values, which are the bedrock of our great country, are shared by all American citizens, past and present.”
Any State Department employee who violates the new policy will “face disciplinary action, including termination of employment or contract, or reassignment to their home agency.”
The only other flags that will be permitted to fly are the Prisoner of War/Missing in Action (POW/MIA) emblem and the Wrongful Detainees Flag.
“The U.S. flag is a powerful symbol of pride and it is fitting and respectful that only the U.S. flag be flown or displayed at U.S. facilities, both domestically and abroad,” according to the policy memorandum.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who was confirmed Monday night in a 99 to 0 vote, issued the order shortly after his swearing-in ceremony on Tuesday.
His doing so signals that Rubio is hitting the ground running on a host of items aimed at reshaping Foggy Bottom’s diplomatic mission.
The memo also makes good on President Donald Trump’s repeated promises to eliminate so-called wokeness from the American government, including by nixing a litany of diversity, equity, and inclusion policies that the Biden State Department championed.
Trump on Monday announced a sweeping series of day-one executive orders that, among other things, will bring wholesale change to the American diplomatic corps.
“On the President’s direction, the State Department will have an America-First foreign policy,” the White House said in a Monday afternoon press release that also previewed Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris Climate Accord and reform the federal bureaucracy.
The Biden White House also allowed the State Department to fly an assortment of pride flags alongside the official American banner, drawing outrage among Republicans in Congress.
In June 2021, for instance, the U.S. embassy in Nassau “raised the rainbow Pride Flag to honor the human rights of LGBTQI+ persons in The Bahamas and around the world,” the State Department said in an announcement at the time.
The raising of the flag marked the U.S. government’s official observance of “pride month” in June.
“The widely recognized rainbow flag,” the State Department said, “will fly from the flagpole of the U.S. Embassy in Downtown Nassau, and at the Chief of Mission Residence on Sanford Road.”
The administration also raised the Black Lives Matter flag at the U.S. embassy and consulates in Brazil to celebrate Black History Month in February 2022.
