Should the White House have a Spanish Website?

What’s the story?

When President Donald Trump took office last year, articles written in Spanish were removed from the official White House website.

At the time, then-Press Secretary Sean Spicer told reporters that the content had been deleted while IT staff were "working overtime" to develop a new Spanish-language site.

Over a year later, no Spanish-language content has appeared on whitehouse.gov.

Why does it matter?

As the AP explained, "1 in 5 people in the United States speaks Spanish" and Russia, China and “even Iran and reclusive North Korea have made efforts to reach out to the Spanish-speaking world.”

The previous two administrations offered Spanish content on whitehouse.gov.

In July, White House Director of Media Affairs Helen Aguirre Ferre said that a Spanish-language website would be live by the end of 2017. Ferre has now declined to comment on whether the administration will post a Spanish site.

Javier Palomarez, president and CEO of the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, told the AP the lack of Spanish-language content "sends a very troubling message."

"There are over 4 million Hispanic-American entrepreneurs and businesspeople in this country, many of whom are receptive to the administration’s pro-business agenda," Palomarez said. He continued:

"If they made even a little effort to communicate and engage with the Latino community, perhaps they would win a few of them over."

What do you think?

Should The White House have a Spanish-language website? Hit Take Action and tell your reps, and share your thoughts – in any language – below.

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—Josh Herman

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