Trump Defies Nation’s History to Make English Official Language
The first lady claims to speak six languages but Trump is ordering everyone to speak only one.
Carl Court/Carl Court/ REUTERS
President Donald Trump wants to contradict the nation’s 250-year history by making English the official language, according to White House officials.
The U.S. has the largest immigrant population in the world and has never had an official language.
The government’s official website still states that Americans speak more than 350 languages, and many people don’t speak English as their first language.
According to the census, 13 percent of the population (over 43 million people) call Spanish their primary mother tongue, and at least 71 million people are bilingual.
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Other major languages spoken in the U.S. include Chinese, Vietnamese, Arabic, and Tagalog, as well as Native American languages like Navajo and Cherokee.
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The United States was largely built by immigrants, and First Lady Melania Trump is an immigrant who speaks six languages herself. But Trump’s mass deportation operation aims to crush immigration and deliver on an “America First” agenda.
The executive order would rescind former President Bill Clinton’s federal mandate, which required federal agencies to provide non-English speakers with translation or additional assistance.
Even though there’s no federally mandated language, all immigrants seeking citizenship must take an English reading and writing test and pass it.
For MAGA supporters, Trump’s order comes as no surprise. While running for his first term, Trump called out former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush for speaking Spanish, saying “This is a country where we speak English, not Spanish.”
He also came under fire during his recent campaign for condemning new languages supposedly popping up around the country.
“These are languages—it’s the craziest thing—they have languages nobody in this country has ever heard of,“ he said. “It’s a very horrible thing.”
Despite his criticisms, Trump still spent millions of dollars during the recent election to reach non-English-speaking citizens and encourage them to vote. But after taking office, the administration took down both the Spanish version of the White House website and the X social media account.
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