Within hours of President Donald Trump’s inauguration, the new administration took down the Spanish-language version of the official White House website. The website now displays an “Error 404” message.
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 Trump to the presidency.
The Spanish page of the White House’s X profile, @LaCasaBlanca, and the government page on reproductive freedom were also unavailable. Meanwhile, the Spanish versions of websites for other government agencies, such as the Department of Labor, Justice, and Agriculture, remained available for users.
Asked about the changes, White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Harrison Fields responded that the administration is committed to bringing the Spanish translation section of the website back online.
“We are in the process of developing, editing, and tweaking the White House website,” Fields said. “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.”
Trump removed the Spanish version of the page in 2017. At that time, White House officials said they would reinstate it. President Joe Biden reinstated the page in 2021.
Hispanic leaders and communication strategy experts expressed surprise at the page’s removal, given 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, so that everyone is a part of the civic process,” said Frankie Miranda, president and chief executive officer of the Hispanic Federation.
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PBS News (1/22/25) by Fernanda Figueroa