Fact Check: Photo of Australian Flag at White House Predates King Charles Visit, Dates to 2019

In an embarrassing mix-up ahead of King Charles III’s state visit to the United States, Washington D.C. officials displayed Australian flags instead of British ones on city lampposts, prompting widespread amusement on social media and leading to false claims about White House protocol.

The confusion deepened when a viral post on X (formerly Twitter) from user @shakeLS claimed that “the US Protocol Office has raised the Australian flag for King Charles state visit,” accompanied by a photo showing both American and Australian flags displayed on the Eisenhower Executive Office Building (EEOB), which is adjacent to the White House.

However, fact-checking reveals this specific claim to be false. The viral image of the Australian flag flying alongside the American flag on the EEOB actually dates back to September 2019, when it was appropriately displayed for then-Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s state visit to Washington.

According to photo agency records from Alamy, the image was taken on September 17, 2019, by Associated Press photographer Patrick Semansky. The original caption confirms: “An American and Australian flag hang from the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the grounds of the White House Complex in Washington, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2019, ahead of Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s state visit.”

While the White House itself did not incorrectly display the Australian flag for King Charles, the District of Columbia did make a genuine error. City officials inadvertently placed approximately 15 Australian flags on lampposts near the White House in preparation for the British monarch’s visit in April 2026.

This actual mistake was documented by several reputable news organizations, including The Independent and CTV News. Getty Images photographs published by these outlets clearly showed the mistakenly placed Australian flags on city lampposts, while simultaneously confirming that only the American flag was displayed on the EEOB building itself during the preparations for the royal visit.

The confusion is understandable to some degree. Both the Australian and British flags feature the Union Jack in the upper left corner, but Australia’s flag includes the distinctive Southern Cross constellation on a blue background, while the British flag consists solely of the red, white, and blue Union Jack design. The similarity between the flags likely contributed to the mix-up by city officials.

By the time the error was identified, city workers were already in the process of replacing the incorrect flags with the appropriate British ones. The swift correction demonstrates how quickly protocol errors are addressed when preparing for high-profile diplomatic visits.

State visits by foreign dignitaries involve extensive planning and attention to diplomatic protocol, with flags serving as important symbols of national identity and respect. The White House Protocol Office and State Department typically coordinate closely with local officials to ensure proper etiquette is followed during such events.

This incident serves as a reminder of the complex logistics involved in international diplomacy and the potential for minor errors to receive outsized attention in the social media age. While D.C. officials did mistakenly display Australian flags on city streets, claims that the White House itself made this protocol error are demonstrably false, based on outdated imagery from an entirely different diplomatic occasion.