Americans looking for information about the Trump administration or White House history in Spanish are coming up empty-handed. For now, at least, it no longer exists.
Just after noon on Friday, WhiteHouse.gov/espanol went dark, with an error message explaining that “the page you’re looking for can’t be found.”
The Obama administration regularly updated versions of the White House website in Spanish and a companion Twitter account (@LaCasaBlanca), sharing news of the president’s speeches and actions and information about health-care reform, changes to immigration policy and other subjects. George W. Bush’s administration also maintained a Spanish version of the official White House website.
The changes to WhiteHouse.gov began Friday with a transformation that included Trump’s set of policy pledges broadly outlining what he hopes to do as president. There are statements espousing fierce support for law enforcement and gun owners’ rights, and there is no longer any information about the Obama administration’s climate change policy or the Affordable Care Act.
There was also a notable change in writing style. As The Washington Post noted Friday, the newly revamped site repeatedly refers to the former businessman as “Mr. Trump,” not “President Trump,” whereas Obama went by “President Obama” on his administration’s website. (Vice President Pence is referred to by his office, rather than as “Mr. Pence”). Trump’s biographical page boasts about his electoral win, and the official biography of first lady Melania Trump touts her modeling work and jewelry line.
[White House website touts Melania Trump’s modeling and jewelry line]
But none of this is laid out in Spanish. Here’s how the Spanish home page and Twitter account appeared on Monday morning:
An image of @lacasablanca, an official White House Twitter account that has sat dormant since Friday.
Trump administration spokesmen have not replied to repeated requests for comment. (We will update this post if they do.)
The absence of any outreach in Spanish may not be surprising to some close observers of Trump’s presidential campaign, who will recall that he spoke out several times against speaking Spanish in the United States.
In September 2015, Trump criticized his then-rival Jeb Bush to his face during a debate for speaking Spanish on the campaign trail.
“We have a country, where, to assimilate, you have to speak English. And I think that where he was, and the way it came out didn’t sound right to me. We have to have assimilation — to have a country, we have to have assimilation,” Trump said. “This is a country where we speak English, not Spanish.”
Over the course of the general-election campaign, Trump’s team also never published a Spanish version of his campaign website and bought no radio, television or digital advertising in Spanish.
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