BOSTON — A Republican congressional candidate says a City of Boston employee ordered him to take down a 250th-anniversary American flag at Boston City Hall Plaza on Friday — the same day Mayor Michelle Wu officially raised the Somali flag over the plaza to mark that nation's independence.
The candidate, Rob Burke, is challenging 12-term Democratic incumbent Stephen Lynch in Massachusetts's 8th Congressional District. By Saturday morning, his post about the removal had drawn more than 6,300 likes, 3,600 retweets and nearly 700 replies on X.
Congressional candidate Rob Burke at Boston City Hall Plaza on Friday, standing in front of the 13-star "250" commemorative flag he says was later ordered down. Photo: Rob Burke / X.
"Forced to take my American flag down on Boston City Hall Plaza — on America's 250th birthday. Meanwhile, the city proudly raises the Somali flag with Mayor Wu's official blessing. Naturalized citizens celebrating foreign independence while an American flag gets removed. Unbelievable double standard." #America250 #Boston #AmericanFlag— Rob Burke (@RBurke4Congress) June 27, 2026
"Naturalized citizens celebrating foreign independence while an American flag gets removed," Burke wrote. "Unbelievable double standard."
The video update
The full story sits in a video update Burke posted Friday afternoon, hours before the Saturday-morning tweet went viral.
🚨🚨 UPDATE: A City of Boston employee came over and told me I had to take my flag down! And then they put a trash barrel where my flag was! These people hate us - they can't stand to see anyone celebrate America 🇺🇸 they'd rather have a ceremony to raise the flag of a foreign nation during the very WEEK of America's 250th birthday! Disgusting behavior! #shameonwu— Rob Burke (@RBurke4Congress) June 26, 2026
"A City of Boston employee came over and told me I had to take my flag down!" Burke wrote. "And then they put a trash barrel where my flag was!"
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He framed it as a deliberate slight: "These people hate us — they can't stand to see anyone celebrate America. They'd rather have a ceremony to raise the flag of a foreign nation during the very WEEK of America's 250th birthday! Disgusting behavior!"
Wu's ceremony
Friday's Somali flag raising was Wu's second annual recognition of Somalia's July 1 Independence Day. She first declared an official Somali Independence Day proclamation for the City of Boston in 2025 and raised the flag at City Hall Plaza that year. The 2026 ceremony went forward Friday at 11 a.m.
The Somali flag flying over Boston City Hall on Friday alongside the American flag and the Boston city flag during the Somali Independence Day ceremony. Photo: Rob Burke / X.
As MDN reported earlier this week, the 2026 ceremony was, unlike 2025, never publicly listed in advance on the city's events calendar — a quiet rollout from a mayor who has made high-profile cultural flag ceremonies on the plaza (Pride, AAPI Heritage Month, Juneteenth, the Cape Verdean flag, Italian Heritage Month) a recurring feature of her tenure.
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, who first declared a Somali Independence Day proclamation for the City of Boston in 2025. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.
City Hall Plaza is, legally, a public forum. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Shurtleff v. Boston in 2022 that the city had violated a Christian civic group's First Amendment rights by refusing to fly its flag from the City Hall flagpole. The ruling does not directly address whether a private citizen can hang their own large flag on city-owned construction fencing at the plaza during an official ceremony.
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Inside the reply pile
By Saturday afternoon, Burke's mentions had filled up. The dominant note was MAGA-coded outrage — readers calling on him to refuse the order, to "stand and fight," to "go take the foreign flag down." One reply invoked Boston's revolutionary history: "So much for 'Boston Strong.' Our ancestors left their homes and safety to FIGHT — literally fight. Why aren't millions of people protesting outside City Hall?"
A substantive reader pointed Burke directly to Camp Constitution — the group whose 2022 Supreme Court win against the city in Shurtleff forced the rewrite of Boston's flag-raising rules — and suggested he "call Hal Shurtleff."
Not every reply was on Burke's side. The sharpest counter came from a Boston account: "My issue has never been the flag. It has never been about defending Mayor Wu. It's about treating city employees with basic respect. There was no reason to talk down to people who were simply trying to help."
Burke in a follow-up video at Plymouth, wrapped in an American flag in front of the Mayflower II. Photo: Rob Burke / X.
Burke is a longshot. Stephen Lynch has held MA-8 since 2001 and beats his Republican challengers by more than forty points cycle after cycle. A viral flag-and-trash-barrel moment will not redraw the district's politics — but by Saturday afternoon the post had crossed over into national conservative X aggregators and was being framed as the "America 250" outrage of the week.
By Saturday morning, the Somali flag was still flying above City Hall Plaza. The 250th-anniversary flag was somewhere else, and according to Burke, a trash barrel was standing in its place.
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