Americans Are Resorting to "Flag Jacking." What Does It Mean?

You’d be forgiven for not knowing what “flag jacking” is, or that it’s become a quiet but growing trend among American travelers. Yet as global tensions rise and the country’s reputation abroad grows increasingly complicated, the practice is seeing a resurgence.

Flag jacking refers to the act of a traveler posing as someone from another country — typically by wearing or displaying a different nation’s flag — in order to conceal their real nationality. In most cases, that means Americans masquerading as Canadians. And while it may seem harmless, even clever, the implications are far more layered.

Earlier this year, The New York Times reported that, according to a survey from the risk-management firm Global Rescue, 72% of “experienced” U.S. travelers believed Americans would be less welcome overseas this year. The reason, they said, stemmed from political polarization and the ripple effects of strained diplomatic relationships. A July study by Upgraded Points supported that sentiment, finding that one in four Europeans holds a negative opinion of American tourists. Interestingly, Americans were even more critical of themselves.

Against that backdrop, flag jacking starts to make some sense — if not moral sense, then at least psychological. The practice isn’t new, either. According to The Independent, it dates back to the Vietnam War, when Americans traveling abroad sought to avoid scrutiny by sewing Canadian flag patches onto their bags. But where it was once about avoiding uncomfortable conversations, today it reflects a deeper unease: an awareness that the U.S. has become, in many corners of the world, a complicated ambassador for itself.

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Online, Canadians have been quick to notice. “Americans have been stealing goodwill by pretending to be Canadian and giving Canadians bad reputations by still acting like Americans,” one Redditor wrote. Another noted that “recent political changes have changed our tolerance of it.” Canadian broadcaster Tod Maffin put it bluntly in a TikTok: “Every time America breaks something overseas, suddenly you can’t swing a baguette in Europe without hitting a backpack with a fresh Canadian flag sewn on the back. It’s like clockwork. The world gets mad at America and Americans go ‘Oh no, quick! To the maple leaves!’”

For some Canadians, the issue isn’t anger so much as frustration that their flag, historically a symbol of relative neutrality and diplomacy, has been co-opted as a shield. For others, it’s an ethical question: what does it say about national identity when people feel safer pretending to be from somewhere else?

Because ultimately, flag jacking isn’t about travel etiquette — it’s about accountability. It underscores the dissonance between how Americans wish to be perceived and how they often are. And while it’s easy to understand the impulse to hide, it’s worth asking what that impulse signifies.

The answer, perhaps, lies not in disguise but in conduct. If flag jacking tells us anything, it’s that reputation matters — and that the only meaningful way to change it is through behavior, not borrowed symbols.