In Milwaukee’s Fiserv Forum on Wednesday evening, seven members of a UNC-Chapel Hill fraternity strode down the Republican National Convention’s red carpet in matching ties. As they proceeded to the main stage carrying flags and shaking hands, country singer-songwriter Brian Kelley belted out his song “American Spirit,” which praises the “old glory” that “don’t ever get old.”
“When a mob tried to take down the American flag on our campus, we knew we couldn’t let that happen,” Alex Johnson told the crowd, which erupted in cheers. “We stood guard, we held it up, and we did not let it fall. It was all about respect.” Johnson lists on LinkedIn that he is a member of Pi Kappa Alpha.
The Trump campaign invited UNC fraternity members to be among the “everyday Americans” featured at the convention, becoming the latest recognition from conservatives for the group’s viral actions in May to guard the campus flag amid pro-Palestinian protests. Conservatives across the nation lauded them, and an operative launched a GoFundMe to host a “rager” for the frat that brought in more than half a million dollars. The party, slated for Labor Day, has been dubbed “Flagstock.”
While some fraternity brothers attended RNC, representatives from others told The Assembly they either didn’t know about the invite until it was on the news, or had declined to attend. Representatives from five out of the six fraternities listed as recipients of funds on the GoFundMe told The Assembly they had no members attend the convention.
Guillermo Estrada, a rising sophomore and philanthropy chair at Pi Kappa Phi who was among those at the flag incident in May, said he and another one of his fraternity members received an invite from the Trump campaign and RNC the first week of July. Estrada, who has worked in conservative politics since he was 14 years old, was honored by the invitation. But ultimately, he and the other member of his fraternity passed on the opportunity.
“We decided not to speak because patriotism and respect for our country, for us, shouldn’t be political,” Estrada said. “We’ve maintained that since our post first went viral. Our goal really wasn’t to promote any certain agenda.”
Several other members involved in the May event have stressed a similar message–that their actions were more about patriotism, not partisanship. Yet, conservative media took up the fraternity members as the counterexample to what they characterized as chaos and injustice unfolding at pro-Palestinian protests that had proliferated campuses nationwide. That message was on full display at RNC, encapsulated in a video montage of news reels ahead of the fraternity brothers’ entrance.
As clips of Chapel Hill and similar scenes at other universities flashed across the screen, an announcer said, “Giving us some hope there, that not all college students have gone woke.”
Brendan Rosenblum, a member of Jewish fraternity Alpha Epsilon Pi who got involved in the flag effort after watching from the side with an Israeli flag, said he and others in his fraternity didn’t even know about the invite until a representative from the fraternity’s national office called to ask who was attending.
To Rosenblum, who identifies as liberal, the invite from Trump exemplified how much he thought the goal of their actions that day had been lost in the virality that followed.
“It’s a bad message to say just because you’re pro American, you’re on one side–on any side,” he said. “You should be able to do that besides your politics.”
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