US flag. Credit / Getty Images
If you happened to find yourself in Yosemite National Park this past weekend (February 22, to be exact), you might have been drawn to the peculiar sight of the American flag hanging upside-down from a cliff.
Right about now is an understandably chaotic time to be an American. A new administration often promises change, but Donald Trump’s executive orders, erratic claims, and crackdowns on supposed overspending within the federal workforce, have more than just ruffled feathers. And that’s before we get onto the mess he’s making with regards to foreign affairs.
As a result, much of the rest of the world finds themselves watching the US with a sense of intrigue bordering on concern. Just what will Trump – and his cohort of eccentric aides – do next?
While we don’t have the answer to that (let’s face it, no one does, likely not even Donald himself) we can tell you what sort of message was being sent when someone decided to hang the US flag upside down from El Capitan in Yosemite National Park.
It perhaps won’t surprise you to learn that there are a customary set of rules where the US flag is concerned.
You’ll likely have seen videos online wherein people go to great lengths to ensure it never touches the ground, but there’s slightly more to things than simply showing the flag the respect of not getting muddy from time to time.
As per the US Flag Code: “The flag should never be used as wearing apparel, bedding, or drapery. It should never be festooned, drawn back, nor up, in folds, but always allowed to fall free.”
Another point details how ‘the flag should never be displayed with the union down’, which is exactly what happened at Yosemite on Sunday. So… just what is going on?
Well, according to NBC News, the flag was positioned so by a group of Yosemite employees, and with a particular aim in mind.
The aforementioned Flag Code rules that the US flag should never be displayed upside down, “Except as a signal of dire distress in instances of extreme danger to life or property.”
Brilliant protest. Yosemite National Park workers hung an upside-down American flag — traditionally a symbol of distress or a national threat — thousands of feet off the ground on the side of El Capitan. pic.twitter.com/jWOBfV4sRa
— Dr. Lucky Tran (@luckytran) February 23, 2025
As per reports, the workers who hung the flag upside down in Yosemite did so in protest of recent job cuts within the National Park Service.
The Trump administration are said to have cut 1,000 jobs at the agency, impacting both national park and forest employees. Perhaps worryingly, Trump instructed Elon Musk, head of the newly-formed Department of Government Efficiency to be “more aggressive” in his pursuit of supposed cost-saving cuts.
What do you make of the ongoing unrest in the US. Let us know in the comments.
