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2016 Presidential Campaign Flags (U.S.)

2016 Presidential Campaign

See also:

2016 Presidential Campaign

Any number of novelty flags are for sale online to support nearly all of the candidates (including many that have already withdrawn from the race), only two campaigns have produced flags that are actively being used by their supporters at rallies as shown in broadcast and print media - the Bernie Sanders campaign on the Democratic side and the Donald Trump campaign on the Republican side.
Randy Young, 13 March 2016

Bernie Sanders flag

image by Randy Young, 13 March 2016

The Bernie Sanders campaign flag can be seen in photographs online at http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo and https://www.bostonglobe.com/news...story.html. The flag features the campaign logo centered on a white field. The logo consists of the name "Bernie" in light blue letters, underlined by waving light blue, white, and red lines. Below the underlined name is the year "2016" in light blue with a light blue line to either side.
Randy Young, 13 March 2016

There should be two additional waving lines - blue at the top hoist, emerging from the hoist edge and red at the bottom fly, which is not completely visible, but is probably emerging from the fly edge (if the logo is meant to be symmetrical).
Tomislav Todorovic, 14 March 2016

Donald Trump flag

[Presidential Campaign flag] images by Randy Young, 13 March 2016

The Donald Trump campaign has two main flags that can be most often seen, and the two are inversed colors of each other. The first flag features the campaign logo centered on a white field within a thin red orle, and can be seen online at http://www.gannett-cdn.com. The name "TRUMP" is centered in bold, dark blue, capital letters, with the slogan "MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!" in smaller dark blue capital letters beneath the name. Above and below the words are four dark blue stars in a row. The inverse color version of this flag - with the dark blue and white parts of the flag reversed - is also commonly seen, such as at http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/vendor-sets-up-a-campaign-flag-for-donald-trump-president-news-photo/513092272 and http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/vendor-holds-a-donald-trump-president-and-chief-executive-news-photo/503501098. The dark blue version of the flag also appears to have some variants, including one without the red orle and one where the orle has been reduced to just two horizontal red lines - one at the top and one at the bottom.
Randy Young, 13 March 2016

image by Randy Young, 21 October 2016

This variant has five stars twice.
Randy Young, 21 October 2016

Flags of other candidates

To date, I have found no evidence of a flag representing the Hillary Clinton campaign, though some are posted for sale on various websites. I have not yet found any photographic evidence of flags at a Clinton rally other than American and state flags.

Looking at photographs of Libertarian rallies for Gary Johnson, the most common flags are American and Gadsden flags, and I have yet to find any photographic evidence of specific flags representing the Johnson campaign.

Likewise, I have not found photographic evidence of specific flags representing the Jill Stein campaign of the Green Party. Thanks to some terrific research from our own Tomislav Todorovic, however, we do have the flag of the Green Party of the United States. The flag, which can be seen online at http://www.theday.com/article/20141014/NWS12/141019891, consists of a white field with light green bars at the top and bottom, each approximately one-sixth the height of the flag. Centered in the white portion of the field is the Green Party logo, which features the name of the party in dark green letters with a dark green star above the name toward the hoist and toward the fly. Centered above the name is a flower-like image showing the Earth in the petals of the flower, all in multiple shades of green.
Randy Young, 21 October 2016

"Make America gay again" flag

image by Tomislav Todorovic, 4 July 2021

Rainbow flag with the inscription "Make America gay again" is an obvious mocking of Donald Trump's 2016 Presidential campaign slogan "Make America great again", as well as of all the ideas which are promoted under that motto. The flag has six stripes, red at the top, while the white inscription is placed upon orange, yellow, green and blue stripes, one word per stripe. It was introduced in early 2017; in June that year, it was used in Washington, DC at the Capital Pride Parade [1, 2, 3], as well as at the St Louis Pride [4] and the New York City Pride [5, 6], the Trumpist "MAGA hats", modified so as to bear this motto, having also appeared at the last of these events [6]. After the season of Pride events, the flag was seen in Aspen, Colorado in December 2017, when several locals hoisted it in front of the house in which Vice President Mike Pence was to spend his vacation [7]. In 2018, it was used at the Miami Beach Gay Pride in April [8] and in June that year, it appeared again at the Capital Pride Parade [9, 10] and then at the San Francisco Pride [11]. In June 2019, it was seen at the World Pride March in New York City [12]. While the Pride events were mostly cancelled in 2020 due to COVID-19 pandemic, the flag use was not discontinued: it was seen in New York City in January that year [13] and again in May [14]; by that time, its message has probably expanded to the criticism of handling of the crisis by Trump administration.

Sources:
[1] Alamy photo archive - Photo from Capital Pride Parade, Washington, DC on 2017-06-10: https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-rainbow-flag-bears-the-slogan-make-america-gay-again-at-the-20107-144896617.html

[2] iStock photo archive - Photo from Capital Pride Parade, Washington, DC: https://www.istockphoto.com/photo/unicorn-waves-the-make-america-gay-again-flag-gm698064184-129353071

[3] The Guardian newspaper website:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jun/11/pride-lgbt-rights-equality-march-donald-trump

[4] Unicorn Hideout website - Photos from St Louis Pride, June 2017: http://unicornhideout.com/2018/06/01/st-louis-pride-parade/

[5] Alamy photo archive - Photo from New York City Pride, on 2017-06-25: https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-new-york-usa-25th-june-2017-new-york-city-heritage-of-pride-march-146695269.html

[6] Coveteur website - Photo report from New York City Pride, on 2017-06-25: https://coveteur.com/2018/06/24/best-looks-new-york-gay-pride-parade-2018/
(image 1: https://coveteur.com/media-library/)
(image 2: https://coveteur.com/media-library/)

[7] Fox News website - News report on 2017-12-30:
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/pence-neighbors-in-aspen-hang-make-america-gay-again-banner

[8] iStock photo archive - Photo from Miami Beach Gay Pride, on 2018-04-08: https://www.istockphoto.com/photo/rainbow-flag-message-at-miami-beach-gay-pride-2018-gm944811486-258079064

[9] Wikimedia Commons - Photo from Capital Pride Parade, Washington, DC on 2018-06-09: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2018.06.09_Capital_Pride_Parade,_Washington,_DC_USA_03036_(27844988447).jpg

[10] Washington Blade newspaper website - Photo report from Capital Pride Parade, Washington, DC on 2018-06-10: https://www.washingtonblade.com/2018/06/10/photos-2018-capital-pride-parade/
(image: https://www.washingtonblade.com/content/files/2018)

[11] iStock photo archive - Photo from San Francisco Pride, on 2018-06-23: https://www.istockphoto.com/photo/onlookers-at-the-san-francisco-lgbt-pride-parade-display-a-make-america-gay-again-gm1006384058-271618494

[12] Shutterstock photo archive - Photo from World Pride March, New York City on 2019-06-30: https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/new-york-city-ny-usa-06302019-1444542020

[13] Shutterstock photo archive - Photo of the flag, taken in New York City on 2020-01-09: https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/new-york-ny-9-jan-2020-1612146838

[14] Getty Images photo archive - Photo of the flag, taken in New York City on 2020-05-22: https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/display-outside-of-a-restaurant-reads-make-america-gay-news-photo/1226489436?adppopup=true
Tomislav Todorovic, 4 July 2021