Boston mayor Michelle Wu was sworn in for a second term Monday with a speech emphasizing the familiar themes of resisting federal overreach and maintaining core city services as guiding tenets of the new administration.
“We are Boston, and we will not appease or abet any threat to our city, and we’ll not wait for permission to build the world our families deserve,” Wu said to an audience of about 2,000 people at Boston Symphony Hall.
“Over the next four years, Boston will be the proof that the nation we fought for is possible, a place where we take care of each other and take on the challenges that matter the most.
Wu drew a parallel between the challenges of today and the herculean task Henry Knox faced as he figured out how to transport 120,000 pounds of guns, mortars and cannons from Fort Ticonderoga to Boston as Chief Artillery Officer during the American Revolutionary War.
“Today, the forces we face aren’t British troops on the common or ships in our harbor, but they demand no less ingenuity,” said the mayor.
“Isolation, polarization, and misinformation are fraying our connection to trust, truth, and each other, core industries are losing workers to competitors overseas, and against this backdrop, the federal government is taking aim at the ways we take care of each other,” she said, pointing to the Trump administration’s slashing of research funding and targeted and sometimes erroneous, seizure of suspected immigrants lacking legal status.
Criticism of the Trump administration became central to Wu’s public persona in 2025 after she made headlines defending Boston’s immigration policies before a U.S. House Oversight Committee.
“This federal administration has plundered our economy, ravaged our reputation, torched our institutions, and destroyed the lives of our people,” Wu said. “But when, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for a city to stand as a beacon for freedom and proof of what’s possible, a testament to the endurance of American ingenuity and civic success, Boston will be that beacon,” she said to cheers.
Wu became Boston’s first woman and person of color elected to lead the city amid a crowded field in 2021. She won her second term unchallenged after Josh Kraft, scion of Patriots owner Robert Kraft, dropped out after finishing nearly 50 percentage points behind the mayor in the preliminary election.
Touting the wins of her first term, Wu pointed to the three free bus lines that run through the city’s core neighborhoods, expanded pre-K seats and a growing number of first-time homeowners and said that local progress would continue.
“Together we’ll deliver the best city services to all of our residents, set the standard for public education, and build an economy that will thrive for another two and a half centuries,” she said. “If we can invent America. Then we can be the city that forges the path forward in this moment.”
Wu enters her second term alongside a council filled with returning members who were also sworn-in Monday. Only District 7 Councilor Miniard Culpepper joined as a new member.
While many councilors are considered the mayor’s political allies, the council itself was unusually unsettled the day before the inauguration as headlines of East Boston Councilor Gabriela Coletta Zapata’s withdrawal from council presidency previewed Monday’s inauguration ceremony. The council was scheduled to have its first meeting and elect its leader, following the swearing-in ceremony Monday.
The election, which requires seven of the council’s 13 members to agree upon a leader to shepherd legislation and set the tone and priorities for the council’s two-year term, could have implications for how the body supports or opposes Wu’s moves as mayor.
Monday’s inauguration ceremony was much larger than Wu’s 2021 event at Boston City Hall and featured an interfaith prayer with clergy from across the city, a poem from Boston Poet Laureate Emmanuel Oppong-Yeboah, and a video reflecting on Wu’s first term. It comes amid a series of family-oriented events featuring free access to some of the city’s cultural institutions. Wu was sworn-in alongside her husband and three children as Sarah G. Kim, Associate Superior Court Justice of Suffolk County, administered the oath of office.
