No Habla Español: Trump White House Drops Spanish-Language Website, Social Media Accounts

Within hours of President Trump’s inauguration, the new administration took down the Spanish-language version of the official White House website.The site — currently https://www.whitehouse.gov/es/ — now gives users an “Error 404” message. It also includes a “Go To Home Page” button that directs viewers to a page featuring a video montage of Mr. Trump in his first term and on the campaign trail.Hispanic advocacy groups and others expressed confusion at the abrupt change and frustration at what some called the administration’s lack of efforts to maintain communication with the Latino community, which helped propel him to the presidency.The Spanish profile of the White House’ X, @LaCasaBlanca, and the government page on reproductive freedom also were disbanded. Meanwhile, the Spanish versions of other government agencies such as the Department of Labor, Justice, and Agriculture remained available for users on Tuesday.Asked about the changes, the White House principal deputy press secretary, Harrison Fields, responded Tuesday that the administration is “committed to bringing back online the Spanish translation section of the website.”“It’s day two. We are in the process of developing, editing and tweaking the White House website. As part of this ongoing work, some of the archived content on the website went dormant. We are committed to reloading that content in a short timeline,” he said without elaborating.Mr. Trump removed the Spanish version of the page in 2017. At that time, White House officials said they would reinstate it. President Biden reinstated the page in 2021.The page’s removal coincided with Mr. Trump’s first-day wave of executive orders highlighted by the launch of an illegal immigration crackdown that was one of his key campaign pledges. Mr. Trump on Monday declared a national emergency at the U.S.-Mexico border and announced plans to send American troops to help support immigration agents and restrict refugees and asylum.According to 2023 Census Bureau estimates, about 43.4 million Americans — 13.7 percent of the U.S. population age 5 and older — speak Spanish at home. America has no official language.Mr. Trump’s secretary of state, Marco Rubio, is Cuban American and speaks Spanish. At his swearing-in Tuesday, he gave remarks in Spanish, thanking God, his family and Trump.Meanwhile, Hispanic leaders and communication strategy experts expressed surprise with the page’s removal, given Mr. Trump’s popularity with certain Latino voters.“If the White House is seriously interested in engaging with Latinos, the second largest group in this country, then they need to make sure that updates can also be distributed in Spanish, a preferred language for millions in our community,” said the president and chief executive of the Hispanic Federation, Frankie Miranda.AP VoteCast, a nationwide survey of more than 120,000 voters, found Mr. Trump won a larger share of Black and Latino voters than he did in 2020, and most notably among men under age 45. Young Latinos, particularly young Latino men, also were more open to Mr. Trump than in 2020. Roughly half of young Latino men voted for Vice President Harris, compared with about 6 in 10 who went for Mr. Biden.Associated Press

No Habla Español: Trump White House Drops Spanish-Language Website, Social Media Accounts

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