White House Website Is Temporarily English-Only As Trump Administration Works On Technical Glitches


The official White House website has English-only content, but the Trump administration says the change is only temporary.

It was observed that all Spanish language content was unavailable on the site, which was initially posted during Obama’s presidency. The Trump administration quickly changed things up, briefly taking down any Spanish-related content on the website as technicians work things out.

According to Fox News, WhiteHouse.gov is now English-only, a seeming indication of President Trump’s strong position on citizens assimilating themselves in America. Anyone who clicks on the White House link for Spanish content will see a 404 error message that reads, “Sorry, the page you’re looking for can’t be found.”

In the months following President Obama’s swearing in back in 2009, the Spanish White House page was created. There was also a blog that addressed issues those in the Hispanic community cared about. On January 20, it was removed.

People wanting to view the Spanish version of the White House website can still read it at ObamaWhiteHouse.gov. A library of content related to Obama’s presidency and other resources are available.

The Trump administration has reportedly ordered more Spanish content be removed, such as @LaCasaBlanca account on Twitter and La Casa Blanca Facebook page.

Some immediately wondered why the White House website had English-only content. Was it because it fell in line with Trump’s opposition to the widespread use of Spanish in the United States?

According to White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer, the website may have Spanish content in the near future. There are changes being made since the Trump administration took over and some issues are getting ironed out by the technology team, according to the Los Angeles Times.

“We are continuing to build out the website. We’ve got the IT folks working overtime on that now.”

President Trump made numerous statements in 2015 regarding his feelings about the Spanish language in the United States. He even criticized former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, one of his rivals in the Republican presidential race. Bush is fluent in Spanish and Trump said he should “set an example and speak English while in the United States.”

Trump made a point to say in the September 2015 debate that English is the main language of the United States.

“We have a country where to assimilate, you have to speak English.”

As Miami Herald reports, President Trump got less than 30 percent of the Latino vote in the 2016 election. He didn’t exactly win them over with his comments about calling some illegal immigrants murderers and rapists. He’s vowed to have a huge wall built along the U.S./Mexican border and insists Mexico will pay for it.

According to the report, over 61 million people in the United States speak languages other than English in their homes. 25 million have informed the U.S. Census Bureau that they don’t speak English well.

CEO and chairman of U.S. English, Mauro Mujica, doesn’t believe Spanish should be a language given priority over 350 other languages spoken in the United States.

“I see nothing wrong with the webpage being in English,” Mujica said.

“Almost everything else is in English. I got The Wall Street Journal this morning in English. I don’t ask them to give me a few pages in Spanish.”

Some states have material available in different languages to communicate with citizens. In Florida, ballots have multilingual versions for elections, with Miami-Dade providing them in three different languages. San Francisco has voting documents available in English, Spanish, Chinese, and Filipino.

Although the White House website is currently English-only, it doesn’t mean Spanish content is removed permanently. The White House spokesman reassured concerned citizens that technicians are flooded with work on the website since President Trump’s inauguration. Until the Trump administration sorts several details upon entering office, the White House website won’t be complete.

[Featured Image by Alex Wong/Getty Images]

Share this article: White House Website Is Temporarily English-Only As Trump Administration Works On Technical Glitches
More from Inquisitr