On America’s 250th, Red State’s Capital City Flies Somali Flag

As America heads into the Fourth of July weekend marking America’s 250th birthday, the city hall of Columbus, Ohio, is celebrating differently.

Columbus is hoisting the flag of Somalia, a foreign government, on Wednesday and celebrating its independence, according to a government department’s social media feed.

“Happy Somali Independence Day! ???? As we celebrate the unification of the Trust Territory of Somaliland and the State of Somaliland into the Somali Republic in 1960, City Hall will be raising the flag of Somalia,” the city’s Parks and Rec department said on social media. Praising Somalia was apparently so important to the department that it was its first post on X, formerly Twitter, since April 2019.

The department deleted the post moments after The Daily Wire asked Parks and Rec and City Hall about it. Neither department immediately replied to questions.

Columbus City Hall’s X account has celebrated Juneteenth and Pride Month, but said nothing about America’s 250th. In June 2023, the council passed a resolution to fly Somalia’s flag. In June 2025, it passed a resolution “To Recognize and Celebrate July 1st as Somali Independence Day in the City of Columbus.”

Columbus is home to the second-largest concentration of Somalis in the United States after Minnesota. The Daily Wire spent time in Columbus after Medicaid records showed some of the most flagrant red flags in the country. Those home-health firms turned out to be run largely by Somalis, to the point where one man said it was racist to ask about Medicaid spending because it was so closely intertwined with Somali identity.

Ohio’s Medicaid spending has doubled over the last decade, leading to a financial crisis.

Ohio is facing a budget crisis due to Medicaid. Here’s one man’s thoughts, told to @ParkerThayer and I:

“Blah blah blah… Journalists, who cares, journalists? Do you pay my bills? … (ominously) We know people to talk to…. I’m going to tell everybody you guys are racist.” pic.twitter.com/h5is7FnT5x

— Luke Rosiak (@lukerosiak) June 3, 2026

Other recipients of government grants in Columbus painted a grim picture of Somalis, saying many claimed to be disabled and were illiterate or drug addicts, to the point where some foreigners were being paid by the government to help other foreigners fill out disability and welfare forms.

Dr. Mehmet Oz, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, traveled to Columbus to address the rampant fraud, calling the city “a Mecca for Somalian populations. … We were naive to think that practices that are common in other parts of the world wouldn’t follow them here.”

The unanswered questions posed to Columbus officials included:

• Is it inappropriate for a government building to fly the flag of a foreign country?
• Where did the idea to promote a Somali holiday originate from?
• Is there a conflict between Somalis being brought to Columbus as refugees because their home is uninhabitable, and celebrating that nation’s independence day?
• Do you think it’s odd to celebrate a foreign country heading into America’s 250th birthday? What days will or is the Somali flag flying? What is city hall doing for America’s independence?