Welcome back to Barf Bag, a subscriber-exclusive column. Here’s everything you get when you subscribe.
Days before the Trump administration threw a jingoistic (and ultimately pathetic) military parade that conveniently fell on Donald Trump‘s 79th birthday, a government agency flew a flag that’s associated with Christian Nationalism and the Stop the Steal movement. It’s the same one that was spotted at Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito‘s beach house in 2023.
Wired reports that, on June 11, Small Business Administration (SBA) raised a new, U.S.-made American flag over the agency’s Washington, D.C., headquarters. SBA administrator and former Georgia Senator Kelly Loeffler attended a ceremony to raise said flag, and photos from the day show an “Appeal to Heaven” flag on the same flagpole.
SBA Barbie even posted a picture of the two flags from her government account.
The white flag with a pine tree dates back to the Revolutionary War, but in the past decade, it’s been associated with Christian Nationalism and support for Trump. January 6 rioters carried it both outside and inside the Capitol that day, and ultraconservative Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.) also displayed the flag outside his office shortly after being elected Speaker of the House last fall. A far-right evangelical named Dutch Sheets has been at the center of an effort to revive the flag to represent “a theological vision of what the United States should be and how it should be governed,” according to Matthew Taylor, a religion scholar at the Institute of Islamic, Christian and Jewish Studies. Meaning, a Christian nation and not a secular one.
Sources told Wired that the Appeal to Heaven flag was raised for less than a day, but it’s nonetheless unsettling to know that it was just casually flying outside a government building. Its mere presence is alarming, as one expert told the outlet. “That the Appeal to Heaven flag is being flown on a government building alongside the American flag should be shocking to anyone who doesn’t wish to live in a theocracy,” said Jon Lewis, a research fellow at the Program on Extremism at George Washington University. “The contemporary usage of the Appeal to Heaven flag is synonymous with Christian nationalism, full stop.”
Back to the Supreme Court Justice. Last year, The New York Times uncovered that the Alitos’ New Jersey beach house flew an Appeal to Heaven flag in 2023. That story came just days after the Times reported that the Alito home in Virginia flew an inverted flag, another symbol of the January 6 insurrection, in early January 2021. You may recall that Alito blamed the upside-down flag on his wife, Martha-Ann Alito, who was in a spat with a neighbor. As for the Appeal to Heaven flag, Alito claimed he wasn’t aware of its connection to the Stop the Steal movement and that, because his wife owns their beach house, she has free reign over its decor. (Martha-Ann was later caught on tape shitting on the Pride flag and suggested she might file defamation lawsuits over news coverage of her two flags.)
What exceedingly normal times we live in.
- Happy Pride: Trump administration will end LGBTQ resources at the 988 national suicide prevention hotline effective July 17. [New York Times]
- As we await to see if World War III breaks out, here is a supercut of Benjamin Netanyahu warning of Iran‘s allegedly imminent nuclear capabilities over 33 years. [YouTube]
- Following huge “No Kings” protests last weekend, Trump said that Immigration and Customs Enforcement would aim to deport even more people in Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York. He notably didn’t call for stepped-up enforcement in Texas or Florida, conservative-led states with large undocumented populations. [New Republic/Bluesky]
- Trump reversed guidance exempting farms, restaurants, and hotels from ICE raids, apparently soon after he spoke to racist goblins Stephen Miller and Kristi Noem. [Axios]
- Trump’s health department gave personal data of immigrants enrolled in Medicaid, including immigration status, to deportation officials. [Associated Press]
- The Department of Homeland Security is now asking members of Congress to provide 72 hours of notice before visiting immigration detention centers. Can’t imagine why they’d need that much time to prepare! [CNN]
- After the NAACP announced it wouldn’t invite Trump to its annual convention, the White House claimed the organization “isn’t advancing anything but hate and division.” [Washington Post]
- The State Department will now screen the social media accounts of all student visa applicants for “indications of hostility” toward the U.S. [Politico]
- SpaceX CEO Elon Musk called Sergio Gor, the man who got Trump to pull his buddy’s nomination to lead NASA, “a snake.” [Politico]
- Failson Eric Trump launched Trump Mobile, which claims its cell phones will be made in the U.S. “eventually.” Translation: they are not made here. [CNN/Bluesky]
- Headline: “Alaska just hit a climate milestone—its first-ever heat advisory” [Grist]
- The Department of Veterans Affairs removed language from VA hospital guidance that explicitly prohibited doctors from discriminating against patients based on their political beliefs or marital status. [The Guardian]
This has been your weekly Barf Bag, thanks for reading!
GET JEZEBEL RIGHT IN YOUR INBOX
Still here. Still without airbrushing. Still with teeth.
