Columbus backtracks, won’t raise a Somalia flag after outrage

While most of the country was preparing to celebrate Independence Day, Columbus officials caved and deleted pro-Somali posts on their social media platforms following criticism.

In now-deleted posts on Facebook and X, the Columbus Recreation and Park Department said that as they “celebrate the unification of Trust Territory of Somaliland and the State of Somaliland into the Somali Republic in 1960, City Hall will be raising the flag of Somalia.”

Several sources posted a screenshot of the original X post before it was removed from the platform.

The City of Columbus, Ohio Recs & Parks Dept just deleted this post celebrating Somali Independence Day after getting ratioed into oblivion 😂 pic.twitter.com/VostOYOQC7

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) July 1, 2026

“There is only one nation’s flag that should ever be flown on American government buildings or property,” U.S. Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, wrote on X. “This action by Columbus is a total disgrace and takes away from the epic celebration on Saturday of this country’s 250-year celebration.”

State Rep. Brian Stewart, R-Ashville, also criticized Columbus officials, saying that Americans should not celebrate the independence of the African government.

“If Somalia is such a failed state that we need to take in tens of thousands of its citizens as ‘refugees,’ then we really don’t need to be celebrating its supposed ‘independence’ with patronizing posts on social media. One more way in which we encourage the refusal to assimilate,” he wrote on X.

Republican Derek Merrin, who is running to replace U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, used the recent news as an opportunity to criticize his political opponent and the Democratic Party as a whole.

“While Americans are celebrating 250 years of the greatest nation on Earth, the progressive left in Columbus is raising Somalia’s flag at City Hall. This is the modern Democratic Party that @Marcy_Kaptur supports,” he said in a post to X. “Pathetic.”

Cincinnati native and former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin joined in by specifically criticizing Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther in a post on X.

In addition to criticizing the local government, in a post on X, The Daily Wire’s Investigative Reporter Luke Rosiak also mentioned that Columbus City Council “repeatedly voted to celebrate Somalia’s independence day and the raising of its flag.”

Jennifer Fening, a spokesperson for Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther, told The Columbus Dispatch that the Columbus authorities deleted the posts not because of backlash but because they were “inaccurate.”

“A social media post created by a city department falsely stated that City Hall would raise the Somalian flag in recognition of Somali Independence Day,” she told the news source. “While the City recognizes and respects the aspirations of people around the world to live in freedom, this post was inaccurate and has been deleted.”

Columbus has the second-largest Somali immigrant population in America, after Minnesota, with the U.S. Census Bureau estimating that 30,000 Somalis live in Ohio. In 2025, a former Joe Biden official allegedly raised a Somali flag at the Ohio Statehouse, which was later removed, also after the backlash from local conservatives, including Republican state lawmakers.