Navy veteran hangs American flag upside down in Trump protest

A Patchogue veteran has hung an American flag upside down outside his home to protest the election of President Donald Trump.

Jim Klein, 69, said he has flown a flag from a pole in his front yard for the past 20 years. But on Inauguration Day, he took it down and inverted it.

“He lies,” the registered Republican and Navy veteran said of Trump. “He goes one way and then another. And I don’t like the way he talks about women, immigrants, the handicapped and the list goes on.”

About a week after he hung the flag upside down it was cut from the pole and stolen, said Klein, a retired NYPD cop. He bought a new one the next day and hung it back up.

Suffolk County police said they’re investigating the incident.

“Everyone has the right to do this. It’s a small protest,” Klein said. “I’m just one person in one town on one street with their flag upside down.”

Not everyone in the neighborhood is happy with Klein’s protest. A man who lives down the block and declined to give his full name said he was “against it” as a Trump supporter, though he thought it was wrong for someone to cut down the flag.

Kim Marder, 35, who lives across the street from Klein, said she doesn’t talk politics with her neighbor, but was upset that someone had stolen Klein’s flag.

“I can see both why he did it and why people would be upset with it, but I think it was wrong for someone to have cut it down,” she said.

Klein has since installed a flood light that shines on the flag at night, while Marder has her security cameras trained across the street. Klein said he hopes it will deter anyone else from removing the flag, which he plans to leave upside down until Trump is out of office.