White House takes down Spanish, other websites

President Donald Trump, whose relationship with Latinos has been frosty, has taken down the White House’s Spanish-language website and in the process might have kicked off another fiery Englishonly debate.

It was unclear Monday whether the elimination of Spanish was permanent; White House press secretary Sean Spicer did not address the use of Spanish during his briefing for reporters.

Some scholars saw the decision as a sign of the president’s “America first” message of protectionism and worried that the absence of Spanish will be taken as an affront to those who identify with the language.

“The removal of Spanish says something about English monolingualism, but it also says something about the speakers of Spanish,” said Phillip Carter, a sociolinguist professor at Florida International University in Miami. “Are you in or are you out? Suddenly they’re out.”

The United States, whose population includes about 52 million Spanish speakers, doesn’t have an official language. The founders debated it, but the idea was abandoned because Americans spoke so many languages that making English the only official one might be considered tyrannical — the reason many American residents had fled their home countries.

The White House “espanol” page, which appears to have been taken down after 5 p.m. Friday, was not the only page removed. Pages dealing with LGBT issues, climate change, health care and civil liberties also disappeared.

Spicer said the White House computer team was “working hard” to build the website, but he did not say whether Spanish content would return.