A “culture of hate” is developing within President Donald Trump’s administration, New Jersey’s entire Democratic House delegation wrote in a letter yesterday after a swastika was scrawled on the wall of a men’s bathroom at a Coast Guard training center in Cape May.
“Every recruit who arrives at Cape May, and every service member serving in our armed forces, deserves to know with certainty that when it comes to hate, our military does not equivocate,” states the letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. “There is no gray area here.”
The hand-drawn swastika was discovered late last month, prompting an internal investigation and a rapid response from Coast Guard leadership; per the Washington Post, Coast Guard commandant Kevin Lunday flew to Cape May and “spoke to about 900 recruits and staff members to address the incident,” also saying in a statement that “hate or extremist ideology” will not be tolerated.
But New Jersey’s eight Democratic House members, led by Rep. Frank Pallone (D-Long Branch), noted in their letter that the Coast Guard’s anti-hate policies were the subject of controversy just last year. In November, several news outlets reported that the Coast Guard intended to reclassify swastikas, nooses, and Confederate flags as “potentially divisive” rather than as “hate symbols.”
Shortly afterwards, the Coast Guard released another updated policy, this time more clearly stating that the service “does not tolerate the display of divisive or hate symbols and flags.” Even with the changes, however, New Jersey’s House Democrats are asserting that the consequences of the dispute have “manifested as an act of antisemitism in our state.”
“We demand that you immediately restore explicit language classifying swastikas as prohibited hate incidents and condemn the use of this heinous symbol at a military facility,” the House members wrote. “And we demand that you take significant steps to reverse the culture of hate that is developing in the Trump Administration.”