President of the United States Donald Trump has reposted a ‘Pink Triangle’ logo on his social media platform Truth Social – a logo that was commonly used by the Nazis to identify queer men.
The first few months of Donald Trump’s second presidency have been marked by a slew of anti-LGBTQ+ executive orders signed, enacting everything from ‘Only two sexes‘ now being government policy to DEI being gutted from government and the military.
Trans individuals have once again been banned from the military and Trump also instigated a ban on healthcare for trans youngsters – and that’s just the start.
One of Trump’s latest posts (10 March) on Truth Social (his own social media platform) consisted of a link to an article featuring the image of a downward pointing pink triangle with a prohibition sign over the top of it.
Trump reshared the article titled “Army recruitment ads look quite different under Trump”, written by former U.S. Army intelligence captain Jeremy Hunt from The Washington Times. Its featured image contains the aforementioned graphic, credited as ‘Military recruitment ads illustration by Linas Garsys / The Washington Times’.
The article argues that Trump and Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth have rapidly shifted the U.S. Military’s focus to become more focused on aggression and lethality, stripping any messaging of inclusion (such as in a famous Biden-era advertisement that showed an Army officer named Emma taking part in a Pride parade).
But why is Trump sharing the Pink Triangle image concerning?
What does the Pink Triangle mean?
The downwards Pink Triangle that Trump reposted is an insignia that dates back to Nazi Germany; it was used to mark gay men in concentration camps.
Men marked with the Pink Triangle in Nazi concentration camps were subjected to horrific treatment, including medical experiments, castration, and execution.
The symbol has since been reclaimed by the queer community, most famously when it was rotated upward in the Silence = Death Project (a consciousness-raising group raising awareness about the AIDS crisis during the Reagan administration).
Despite this, Trump’s use of the Pink Triangle has added to a rising feeling of insecurity for queer people in the United States. It was not clear whether Trump read the article or knew what the illustration depicted or symbolised.
It comes months after many claimed that Elon Musk, who became a major Trump donor during the election campaign and helms the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), gave a ‘Nazi salute’ during a Trump rally.
Musk responded on X, re-sharing one X user asking: “Can we retire the calling people a Nazi thing?” to which the tech billionaire responded: “Yeah exactly”, with a yawning emoji.
What has Trump’s campaign said about LGBTQ+ military personnel?
Trump has already declared Trans people ‘unfit’ for military service in an Executive Order signed in January, declaring the armed forces have been “afflicted with radical gender ideology”.
The US has been added to human rights watchlist following Trump’s ‘unparalleled attack on the rule of law’.
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