The agency’s union said the agency “has no place for symbols of insurrection.”
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WASHINGTON – A senior official at the U.S. Department of Education left a controversial flag associated with Christian nationalism and the Jan. 6 insurrection hanging outside his office, according to the department’s union and a department employee who witnessed it.
This is the latest in a series of examples in which a flag with a pine tree and the words “Appeal to Heaven” has been associated with the highest levels of the federal government.
The banner has long been associated with the American Revolution, but in recent years it has been “adopted primarily by evangelical Christian nationalist groups,” as well as the Proud Boys and some neo-Nazi groups, according to the independent nonprofit Global Project Against Hate and Extremism. It was flown in 2021 by rioters attempting to stop Congress from certifying the 2020 presidential election results.
The symbol’s appearance at the agency responsible for overseeing billions of dollars in federal funding for schools across the country is already raising concerns about the separation of church and state.
Rachel Gittleman, president of the National Education Department Employees Union, said in a statement that the Department of Education has “no place for symbols of insurrection.”
“Since January, the hard-working public servants of the U.S. Department of Education have been subjected to intimidation, harassment, and sustained demoralization,” she said. “They are now required to work in an environment where senior leaders prominently display an offensive flag, which, despite its origins in the American Revolution, has become a symbol of intolerance, hatred, and extremism.”
In a statement to USA TODAY, the Department of Education did not confirm the presence of the flag or address concerns about its ties to extremist ideology.
“As always, our members are more worried about imagined grievances and stupid political battles than about the abysmal test scores of our nation’s students,” said Maddie Biedermann, assistant secretary for public affairs.
It’s unclear how long the banner hung outside the Washington, D.C., office of Murray Bessette, principal deputy assistant secretary in the Office of Planning, Evaluation, and Policy Development.
Before joining the Trump administration, Bessette oversaw academic programs at the Alexander Hamilton Institute, a nonprofit organization that prepares young people for careers in foreign policy and national security. Early in his career, he worked for the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation. in Political Science from Claremont Graduate University.
According to WIRED magazine, the Small and Medium Enterprise Agency raised the “Appeal to Heaven” flag at a ceremony in June, but it was only raised for about one day. Last year, The New York Times reported that the banner was discovered outside the summer home of conservative Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito in the summer of 2023. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) sometimes displayed the symbol outside his office at the Capitol.
Zachary Schermele is a Congressional reporter for USA TODAY. You can email us at zschermele@usatoday.com. Follow him on X at @ZachSchermele and on Bluesky at @zachschermele.bsky.social..
