Yosemite Employees Hang US Flag Upside Down In Budget Cut Backlash

Authored by Jennifer Torres via The Epoch Times,

On Feb. 22, a large group of outdoor enthusiasts gathered at El Capitan, one of the world’s most iconic rock formations, in California’s Yosemite National Park to witness the “Firefall”—a natural phenomenon that occurs when the setting sun hits the park’s Horsetail Fall at just the right angle, causing it to resemble a flow of lava. 

However, the moment was marked by the presence of an upside-down American flag draped over the side of the granite monolith near the fall.

According to the U.S. Department of Defense, the U.S. Flag Code determines that when the U.S. national flag is displayed, the union should be uppermost and to the observer’s left. Furthermore, “it should never be displayed upside down unless trying to convey a sign of distress or great danger.” However, the code does not specify any legal penalties for violations.

Yosemite employees reportedly positioned the upside-down flag to protest recent budget cuts, hiring freezes, and federal layoffs, all components of President Donald Trump’s budgetary package, which was narrowly approved by the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday—authorizing at least $1.5 trillion in spending cuts over the next decade.

A spokesperson for the National Park Service told NTD that the agency “is aware of the unauthorized and inappropriate display that occurred at Yosemite National Park over the weekend.”

“The NPS does not condone such actions, and the flag was removed as soon as possible,” the spokesperson said. “We take the protection of our national parks seriously and will not tolerate behavior that undermines their integrity. At this time, we have nothing further to add.”

The flag appeared on the same day that an email was sent to thousands of federal employees by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), requiring them to submit a report within 48 hours detailing five specific achievements they had made at work in the previous week.

Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) head Elon Musk warned in a social media post that failure to meet the deadline would result in termination.

On Monday, Trump told reporters that Musk’s agency has already found “hundreds of billions of dollars in fraud.”

“A  lot of people are not answering because they don’t even exist. That’s how badly various parts of our government were run,” Trump said, “So, by asking the question, ‘Tell us what you did this week,’ what he’s doing is saying, ‘Are you actually working?’”

A new poll by Harvard CAPS-Harris reveals that 76 percent of those surveyed support a “full-scale effort to find and eliminate fraud and waste in government” and that 77 percent support a “full examination of all government expenditures.”

According to a statement from the National Parks Conservation Association, more than 700 National Park Service staff across the country have submitted resignations as part of the Trump administration’s buyout offer, while another 1,000 employees are at risk of termination—and more than 2,000 seasonal and permanent parks positions across the country have been eliminated.

Responding to the upside-down flag incident, Connecticut State Sen. Bob Duff (D-Norwalk) shared a quote in an Instagram post this week, purportedly from Gavin Carpenter, a Yosemite maintenance mechanic Duff identified as a “disabled military veteran.” Carpenter allegedly admitted he had supplied the flag and helped position it.

“We’re bringing attention to what’s happening to the parks, which are every American’s properties,” the quote read.

In his post, Duff asked his followers, “Are we listening to one of our veterans?”

The photo Duff used in the Instagram post was from the San Francisco Chronicle with the caption indicating that the flag was intended to “protest the thousands of federal job cuts made by President Donald Trump’s administration.”