A Washington Post report that the U.S. Coast Guard will no longer classify the swastika as a hate symbol under a new policy set to be implemented next month is garnering condemnation from Jewish groups and Democratic officials.

According to the report, the new policy will classify the Nazi emblem as “potentially divisive.” It is also set to apply to nooses.

Acting Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Kevin Lunday denied the reports, saying “The claims that the U.S. Coast Guard will no longer classify swastikas, nooses or other extremist imagery as prohibited symbols are categorically false. These symbols have been and remain prohibited in the Coast Guard per policy. Any display, use or promotion of such symbols, as always, will be thoroughly investigated and severely punished.”

Coast Guard spokesperson Jennifer Plozai, however, told the Washington Post that the Coast Guard would be “reviewing the language” of the new policy.

Rep. Lauren Underwood (D-IL), the ranking member of the House Appropriations subcommittee responsible for funding the Department of Homeland Security, said she’d met with Lunday on Thursday evening and he had committed to changing the policy and publishing an updated version on Thursday evening.

She said that Lunday had “assured us that there is a[n] across-the-board prohibition on hate symbols, including swastikas and nooses.” She said the policy would also make clear that there will be “zero tolerance” for “any display” of such symbols in the Coast Guard.

“The swastika and the noose aren’t ‘potentially divisive.’ They are explicit symbols of antisemitism and hate. Treating them as anything less than hate symbols is a dangerous mistake,” Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said.

“Nazi swastikas are not ‘divisive.’ They are antisemitic,” the American Jewish Committee said in a statement. “They represent a regime responsible for the murder of six million Jews and insult the hundreds of thousands of Americans who gave their lives to defeat the Nazis 80 years ago.”

The AJC called on Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, under whose jurisdiction the Coast Guard falls, to “reverse these deeply troubling guidelines immediately.”

Amy Spitalnick, the CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs said, through the amended policy, “the Coast Guard is doing nothing less than normalizing violent extremism.”

Halie Soifer, the CEO of the Jewish Democratic Council of America, told Jewish Insider the policy marks as “dark and unprecedented moment in our country’s history,” in conjunction with President Donald Trump’s recent comments accusing Democrats of “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!” 

“This signaling to right-wing extremists and antisemites — combined with the President’s explicit threat of political violence — is depraved, unconscionable, shocking, and incredibly dangerous, including for Jews,” Soifer continued.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) said that, “Granting hate symbols like swastikas & nooses even an ounce of respectability is absolutely an anathema.” 

“Sec. [Kristi] Noem should be ashamed & Americans outraged. This edict besmirches the Coast Guard’s honor & should be immediately reversed,” he continued. 

Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA) called the policy change “indefensible.”

Reps. Dan Goldman (D-NY), Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), Haley Stevens (D-MI), Mark Veasey (D-TX), Ted Lieu (D-CA) and Grace Meng (D-NY), co-chairs of the House Antisemitism Task Force, issued a statement condemning the decision.

“By eliminating the terminology of ‘hate incident’ symbols at a time of rising antisemitism and increasing hate, the Coast Guard risks emboldening those who seek to intimidate or target Jewish Americans, Black Americans, and other minority communities,” the lawmakers said. “This change sends a chilling signal to American Jews at a moment when antisemitic incidents have already hit record highs in the United States. This policy change must be reversed immediately.” 

Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE), also a co-chair of the task force, said, “This would be an egregious move on the part of the Administration if true.” 

“The Department of Homeland Security is outright refuting and another outlet has confirmed it reporting that officials say they are still covered under the new language and will not be tolerated,” Bacon said. “We need some clarity on this issue and the Coast Guard should make it 100% clear. It would help if the Coast Guard had a Commander, as the position has been vacant for many months.”

Rep. Laura Gillen (D-NY) wrote to Lunday, the Coast Guard commandant, expressing “deep concern” and “strong opposition” to the policy, and said that the policy change should be reversed immediately and requested an explanation of the policy change, who was involved and how the Coast Guard will “reaffirm its zero-tolerance posture toward racism and antisemitism.”

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who is Jewish and a potential 2028 presidential candidate, said that he “helped build a Holocaust museum so future generations would understand the horror of the swastika — not watch our own government rebrand it, the noose, and the Confederate flag as merely ‘potentially divisive.’ These are symbols of mass murder and racial terror. The Trump Administration must reverse this immediately. You do not sanitize evil. You confront it.”

Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS), the ranking member of the House Homeland Security Committee, said that the policy “is vile and horrific.”

“Swastikas and nooses aren’t ‘potentially divisive’; they are longstanding and well known representations of genocide and lynchings,” he said. “The Trump Administration is looking to take us back all the way to the era of the Nazi Party and the Jim Crow South.”

He dismissed the Coast Guard’s denials, saying that the “administration is trying to claim they don’t mean what the policy says,” and should withdraw and disavow the policy.

Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA), the ranking member of the House Rules Committee, posted on X, “Welcome to Donald Trump’s America—where it’s fine to be a Nazi or in the KKK.”

Doug Emhoff, the former second gentleman and a leader of the Biden administration’s efforts to combat antisemitism, said on X, the change is “Completely wrong and unacceptable. Leaders cannot remain silent on this if they are serious about combatting antisemitism and hate.”

Rep. Dave Taylor (R-OH) blamed “vandalism” and requested a Capitol Police investigation after a flag showing a swastika overlaid onto the American flag was spotted in a staff member’s cubicle during a virtual meeting.

The flag was pinned up on the wall of the staffer’s cubicle alongside various other memorabilia, including a copy of the U.S. Constitution and a congressional calendar. The incident was first reported by local Ohio news outlet The Rooster.

“I am aware of an image that appears to depict a vile and deeply inappropriate symbol near an employee in my office,” Taylor said in a statement issued Wednesday. “The content of that image does not reflect the values or standards of this office, my staff, or myself, and I condemn it in the strongest terms. Upon learning of this matter, I immediately directed a thorough investigation alongside Capitol Police, which remains ongoing. No further comment will be provided until it has been completed.”

An email inquiry to the Capitol Police’s public information office returned an automatic reply stating that the office is closed until the end of the current government shutdown.

Taylor is a first-term lawmaker representing much of southern Ohio. The staffer in question, whose involvement in the incident is at this point unknown, has served as a legislative correspondent for Taylor since January.

“As a Jewish community we are concerned when any symbol of hate — especially a swastika — is found in the halls of Congress,” Howie Beigelman, the CEO of the Ohio Jewish Communities, told Jewish Insider. “Congressman Taylor has been a good friend to the Jewish community since his election. He’s reached out to us to convey his anger that a swastika was in his office as well as his concern for how this will impact the Jewish community across Ohio and nationally. We hope that wherever this investigation leads, he and his team will take any necessary & appropriate action.”

The discovery comes a day after a Politico report about a group chat in which leaders of Young Republican groups across the country praised Adolf Hitler, joked about the Holocaust and discussed putting political opponents in gas chambers, as well as expressed racist sentiments and supported rape.

This story was updated on Wednesday evening to include the comments of Ohio Jewish Communities’ CEO Howie Beigelman.