As the United States neared its 250th birthday in recent months, a new spin on the Stars and Stripes appeared outside homes and on banners dangling from government buildings. A twist on what’s known as the “Betsy Ross flag,” with 250 inscribed within its 13-star circle, the celebratory image scans as neutral yet elegant. But just as the Trump administration overhauled this year’s semiquincentennial celebration with partisan events and political rallies, the Ross flag, too, was co-opted by the White House.Versions of the Ross flag, now a logo for Freedom 250, the White House–endorsed semiquincentennial planner, have been popping up in political contexts and elsewhere. (There are variations of the logo, one with only 250 in the center, and the other with Freedom 250.) Just looking at the design, it might be hard to see what the fuss is about, but those frustrated by Freedom 250 see it as yet another way the White House took control of the celebration from a nonpartisan rival, implicitly excluding Americans who do not agree with the president.Last September, America250, the nonpartisan organization authorized by Congress in 2016 to plan patriotic activities for the anniversary, applied for a trademark for the design with 250 in the center, as shown by U.S. Patent and Trademark Office documents that were cited in a report released by House Democrats yesterday. The $5,350 application was for nine usage categories, that include flags, jewelry, digital media, paper goods, printed media, clothing, and toys. Yet in April, America250 quietly transferred ownership of the trademark application to Freedom 250, a public-private partnership created by the White House that has been putting on events with a partisan flair, such as mobile museums that offer a conservative, Christianity-infused retelling of the country’s birth and the Great American State Fair, where conservative and religious groups have booths and visitors can take home a replica U.S. passport with Donald Trump’s face printed in it. According to a person familiar with the matter, the White House’s Task Force 250, the governmental arm behind Freedom 250, made the Ross handover a condition for America250 to receive $50 million from the Interior Department. Only half of those funds have been distributed thus far, Michael Scherer reported last month in The Atlantic.(The design is on its way to becoming a registered trademark but has been held up by the opposition of a marine-product company that sells an almost identical flag for boats.)A spokesperson for the Department of the Interior told me in an email, “As with all of our signature 250 events, resources have been made available to ensure these historic occasions are a success,” adding that “the Memorandum of Understanding signed with all 250th related entities made that clear and we are proud to be partners in celebrating these iconic events honoring our 250th thanks to the bold leadership of President Donald J. Trump.” Freedom 250 denounced the report from House Democrats wholesale, describing it as “nothing more than a partisan smear from politicians who would rather manufacture division than celebrate America’s 250th birthday alongside the rest of the country.” The Patent and Trademark Office declined to comment, and the White House directed questions back to Freedom 250. America250 did not respond.The Trump administration hasn’t exactly been known for its design forte lately. Look no further than the “Temu arch”—a blocky model of the monument that Trump wants to build near Arlington National Cemetery—propped up on the National Mall for the state fair. Yet in demanding exclusive access to the Ross design, Freedom 250 would receive more than a logo: the design has a sort of legitimacy, conferred through a historic symbol linked to the country’s founding and solidified through the ensuing centuries. That a national symbol could effectively become part of a financial ultimatum reflects only how political this birthday party has become.Freedom 250 operates separately from the nonpartisan America250, which has largely been planning patriotic events outside of Washington, D.C. The confusion has already sparked controversy, including a number of musical acts dropping out of a concert series on the Mall when they became aware of the political charge of the event organizer, Freedom 250.America250’s logo—a red, white, and blue ribbonlike rendering of 250 that some have likened to the French flag—hasn’t left much of an impression, nor has the commission’s mascot, George the Star. The Ross-flag-inspired Freedom 250 logo, meanwhile, has been spreading. A version of the design has been incorporated into much of Freedom 250’s merchandise, such as totes and T-shirts. The flag appeared behind Trump at his recent rally opening the fair. It is featured on pins that the Department of Interior is reportedly requiring staff to wear. It’s been integrated into the scenery of Washington too. A giant flag, with Freedom 250 at the center of the stars, hangs outside the Department of Agriculture building, while another version of the design is incorporated into banners lining the Department of Commerce. Both are high-traffic areas near the Mall sure to be populated by many fireworks-seeking tourists this weekend. In the report on Freedom 250’s activities, Democrats on the House Natural Resources Committee describe the ubiquity of the Freedom 250 branding—which in some places uses the flag design in its entirety and in others just the circle of stars—as the objective. “Saturating the country with the mark makes the hijacking of a national commemoration appear ordinary through sheer repetition,” they write.Chip Somodevilla / GettyThe design has also taken on a life of its own, seemingly far from Freedom 250’s publicity apparatus. Versions of the flag with just 250 in the circle are sold both through Freedom 250’s store and in online flag shops. It can be spotted on storefronts and in workspaces. One particularly enthusiastic life-insurance company said that it had donated the spin-off flag to 250 groups across the country, such as the Arkansas State Police and Mississippi’s Ida B. Wells-Barnett Museum.The White House encouraged the use of the image through an initiative called “Logo for the People,” which allows groups to apply for the designs, including the flag, and aims to put “official Freedom 250 logos and assets in the hands of every community, school, business, and family.” That branding reached even further into the country this week, when the Social Security Administration announced that a Freedom 250 logo would appear on commemorative cards distributed to babies born from yesterday through the end of the year.The origins of the 13-star flag have long been disputed. For years, Americans have been taught that Ross, a Philadelphia seamstress, made the first U.S. flag. (Last week, at the Great American State Fair, I spotted a Ross impersonator sewing a 13-star rendering.) Historians say that there is no archival evidence confirming that Ross made the flag and that there were other flags that represented the 13 colonies at war (see: the Grand Union Flag). “It’s not such a tidy or linear history, because history usually is not tidy or linear,” Marla Miller, a history professor at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and the author of the book Betsy Ross and the Making of America, told me. Still, the circular design took hold in the popular imagination, giving it added meaning this anniversary.For some vexillophiles, the issue is not so much who is propagating the spin-off Ross flag but the design itself. In adding characters to the flag, some say, Freedom 250 is violating the U.S. flag code, although the code is toothless. As Marc Leepson, the author of Flag: An American Biography, told me, “The President of the United States is not going to get arrested by the flag police.” But for an administration that has preached the sanctity of national symbols and is keen on casting itself as the steward of all things America this summer, the potential breach carries a note of irony.Roland Miller, the author of Old Glory: Iconic Flags and the Stories They Tell of America’s 250-Year History, told me that the Freedom 250 design “doesn’t seem kosher.” More than that, “so many people have sacrificed so much to serve our country under the flag,” he said. “Any disrespect, to me, is certainly not patriotic.”Michael Scherer contributed reporting.When you buy a book using a link on this page, we receive a commission. Thank you for supporting The Atlantic.