The View’s Sunny Hostin Says American Flags Make Her Feel ‘Unsafe’

“The View” co-host Sunny Hostin returned to a well-worn theme on Monday: the sight of the Stars and Stripes fills her with dread.

Discussing the viral image of masked Patriot Front marchers riding a Washington Metro train alongside a black woman who sat expressionless nearby, Hostin used the moment to revive her years-old claim that Old Glory has effectively become a white supremacist emblem in parts of the country.

Hostin told viewers, “There are times when I walk into a community and I see American flags all over the community and I suddenly feel unsafe because there is a section of this country that has co-opted the American flag and they equate being an American, or an American flag, with white supremacy.”

She made sure to note this wasn’t a new position — she’s held it for roughly a decade on the show.

Naturally, the internet had questions, chief among them: doesn’t Hostin herself live in one of the whitest, wealthiest zip codes in America? Commentators were quick to point out that her Purchase, New York neighborhood boasts an average income around $800,000 and a population that’s overwhelmingly white — the kind of demographic makeup that, by her own logic, might warrant suspicion.

Sunny Hostin lives in Purchase, NY, one of the wealthiest ZIP codes (10577) in the United States of America.

The AVERAGE income in Purchase NY is $800,000/year.

That's the AVERAGE.

It's also, coincidentally, 80-85% White people…

— Matt Van Swol (@mattvanswol) July 6, 2026

This isn’t Hostin’s first rodeo with flag-based fearmongering. Back in 2021, she made similar remarks defending an MSNBC analyst who had called American and Trump flags in Long Island “disturbing.”

“When someone of color, a black woman, is telling you her feelings, people need to listen and not, you know, repudiate it and not say, ‘Well, that can’t be true,’” Hostin said at the time. “When I drive into a neighborhood, and it’s not July 4th, and I’m not in a predominantly military household neighborhood and there are flags, American flags, everywhere, alongside Trump flags, alongside flags with stars in a circle, I feel threatened.”

“Because the message is very clear,” she had added. “It’s a message of white supremacy. It’s a message of racism, and it’s a message of their country, not my country. I don’t understand why that would receive backlash. People need to listen when I am saying this is how I feel. This is my experience in this country.”

Co-host Michelle Buteau piled on, questioning what, exactly, the nation has to celebrate at 250 years and arguing that the viral Metro photo validated the experiences minorities face in their daily lives.

Flag anxiety is just the latest entry in Hostin’s catalogue of grievances. She’s previously argued that Trump’s 2025 inauguration on Martin Luther King Day was hypocritical, called the assassination of a healthcare CEO a normal byproduct of a nation “built on violence,” and — despite learning her own ancestors owned slaves — maintained she’s still owed reparations.

In Hostin’s America, a flag flying on a porch is a five-alarm threat.