(Headline USA) Within hours of President Donald Trump’s inauguration, the new administration took down the Spanish-language version of the official White House website.
The site now gives users an “Error 404” message. It also included a “Go Home” button that directed viewers to a page featuring a video montage of Trump in his first term and on the campaign trail. The button was later updated to read “Go To Home Page”.
The White House website is literally telling people to Go Home.
Should it say “Adios?” pic.twitter.com/Sp5ss76pFL
— Dr. Jebra Faushay (@JebraFaushay) January 21, 2025
Activists 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 him to the presidency.
The Spanish profile of the White House account on X, @LaCasaBlanca and the government page on abortion also were disbanded.
Meanwhile, the Spanish versions of other government agencies—including the departments of Labor, Justice and Agriculture—remained available for users on Tuesday.
Harrison Fields, White House principal deputy press secretary, said the administration was “committed to bringing back online the Spanish translation section of the website” when asked about the changes on Tuesday.
“It’s day two. 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,” he added. “We are committed to reloading that content in a short timeline.”
Fields did not elaborate on what the timeline would be for restoring the content—perhaps triggering concern among some that it may follow in the footsteps of its predecessor.
The Biden administration’s Office of Personnel Management drew heavy criticism for taking down a public-accountability page that showed the amount of time government employees were spending engaged in union activities. Although it claimed to be doing a web revamp, the page was never restored in such a way as to be accessible to the general public.
As for the official White House page, Trump previously removed the Spanish version of it in 2017. At that time, White House officials said they would reinstate it. President Joe Biden reinstated the page in 2021.
The page’s removal coincided with Trump’s first-day wave of executive orders highlighted by the launch of an illegal immigration crackdown that was one of his key campaign pledges.
Trump on Monday declared a national emergency at the U.S.–Mexico border and announced plans to send U.S. troops to help support immigration agents and restrict refugees and asylum.
Anthony Hernandez, a paralegal in the nation’s capital, wasn’t initially aware of the move but said it suggests what the coming years of a second Trump presidency would look like.
“A move like shutting down the Spanish White House page and X profile serves no purpose other than to cut off resources for millions of Hispanic Americans and immigrants attempting to enter the United States legally,” Hernandez said. “And it’s a slap in the face to the millions of Hispanic voters that supported him in this recent election.”
Meanwhile, other Hispanic leaders and communication strategy experts expressed surprise with 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,” said Frankie Miranda President and CEO of the Hispanic Federation.
He called that a way to ensure “everyone is a part of the civic process.”
AP VoteCast, a nationwide survey of more than 120,000 voters, found Trump won a larger share of black and Latino voters than he did in 2020, and most notably among men under age 45.
Young Latinos, particularly young Latino men, also were more open to Trump than in 2020. Only about half of young Latino men voted for Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris, compared with about 6 in 10 who went for Biden.
Trump’s secretary of state, Marco Rubio, is Cuban American and speaks Spanish. At his swearing-in Tuesday, he gave remarks in Spanish, thanking God, his family and Trump.
Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press
