Did the U.S. Treasury building fly a Palestinian flag on June 16, 2024? No, that's not true: A representative for the U.S. Treasury responded to claims on X, saying it was "a pride flag." A search on Google News did not yield any evidence that would corroborate the claims. And one prominent person who posted one of the claims -- former speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Newt Gingrich -- said his post was based on "a misunderstanding."
The Gingrich claim appeared in a now-deleted post on X (archived here) where it was published on June 16, 2024 by Newt Gingrich. It read:
Whoever is flying the Palestinian flag over the US Treasury building should be fired summarily. I just saw the picture of the Palestinian flag flying over the US Treasury building next to the white house and i could not believe it.
This is what the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Mon Jun 17 13:44:06 2024 UTC)
The post did not include photographic evidence of the claim.
Other accounts made similar claims, including at least one (archived here) with a time stamp showing that it was posted before the Gingrich post. Other examples are here and here (archived here and here). All were posted within a few hours.
Mike Gwin, the principal deputy assistant secretary for public affairs for the US Treasury, responded to Gingrich's post with a one-sentence comment (archived here):
Sir, that's a pride flag.
On June 2, 2024, the US Treasury X account posted pictures of Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen raising a Pride flag on top of the building as shown below (archived here):
Today, @SecYellen raised the Pride flag at Treasury to express solidarity with LGBTQ+ Americans during #PrideMonth. This is the first time in history that the Pride flag has been raised at the Treasury building. pic.twitter.com/xp4DaJrlCY
-- Treasury Department (@USTreasury) June 2, 2022
Lead Stories searched keywords on Google News, visible here, which found no credible reporting to corroborate the claim (archived here) that the U.S. Treasury had flown a Palestinian flag.
Lead Stories reached out to Gingrich's office concerning the claim. Louie Brogdon, the editorial director for Gingrich's website, sent a June 17, 2024, email to Lead Stories, quoting Gingrich, who called his X post, a "misunderstanding:"
It was a misunderstanding on my part. However, I agree with most Americans that only the U.S. flag should be flown at federal buildings.
