Whitehouse.gov relaunches to include Spanish language communications under Biden

The Whitehouse.gov website was updated on Wednesday to reflect that Joe Biden is the new President of the United States, and it now also includes a Spanish language section which had been removed during Donald Trump’s tenure in office.

The White House’s landing page for its Spanish language communications went dark in 2017. At the time, then-White House press secretary Sean Spicer indicated that the site would be restored, but it never happened.

The White House’s Spanish language communications companion Twitter account, @LaCasaBlanca, continued to operate during Trump’s time in office. But the omission of Spanish communications on the White House website was a clear departure from a norm of the presidential office, which had been observed under the Obama and George W. Bush administrations.

The omission of a Spanish language Whitehouse.gov under Trump was also reflective of sentiments he had expressed on the campaign trail — asserting that immigrants in the US “have to speak English” and that the US “is a country where we speak English, not Spanish.”

Trump kicked off his 2016 presidential platform campaigning on stopping further immigration into the US — zeroing-in on migrants from Latin America, particularly Mexico, and the Middle East. He ate a Philly cheesesteak on the campaign trail at a restaurant known for the owner’s controversial decision to post a sign that said “This is AMERICA. When ordering, speak English.” And he even tried to use one Republican primary opponent’s bilingualism as a political weapon.

Speaking about his then-opponent Jeb Bush and the criticisms he lodged in Spanish, Trump said, “I like Jeb … But he should really set the example by speaking English while in the United States.”

Soon after Biden’s swearing-in ceremony, the National Archives also launched its website for the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library, which houses the version of Whitehouse.gov under Trump, archived social media posts and, eventually, research about his tenure in office.

The Trump Library will be the 15th presidential library operated by the National Archives.