Trump Administration Faces Backlash for Removing Spanish-Language White House Website
Trump gestures with a bloodied face while he is assisted by US Secret Service personnel after he was shot in the right ear during a campaign rally in US. July 13, 2024. (Reuters)
Just moments after President Donald Trump was sworn into office, the Spanish-language version of the White House website, “La Casa Blanca,” disappeared, sparking outrage on social media and among Hispanic advocacy groups.
The move drew parallels to Trump’s first day in office in 2017, when the Spanish version of the site was also removed. President Joe Biden reinstated it immediately after taking office in 2021. Despite Trump crediting some of his electoral success to improved support among Hispanic voters, this action has been widely criticized as a symbolic dismissal of the community.
Initially, visitors attempting to access the Spanish-language website encountered a stylized 404 Not Found error page with a button labeled “GO HOME.” By Tuesday, the White House updated the button to read “GO TO HOME PAGE,” possibly in recognition of the negative optics of telling Spanish speakers to “go home.”
Nevertheless, the removal of the website triggered an uproar online. “The Spanish version of the White House website and its Twitter page have been deleted following the transfer of power to the Trump Administration,” the Latino advocacy group LULAC posted on X.
“White House’s Spanish-language website goes dark after Trump takes office … This is some Grinch-level bulls—! Wow!” tweeted Lee Ivory, a former USA Today editor and journalism professor.
“I saw this on TikTok but I had to go see it for myself,” wrote poet and essayist Vanessa Angélica Villarreal. “The White House website, translated into Spanish — gone. And they’ve replaced the Home button with the words ‘Go Home.'”
“Donald Trump deleted the White House website and Twitter account that were in Spanish? Vile,” artist Candee Corliss wrote on Bluesky. MSNBC columnist Julio Ricardo Varela sarcastically noted, “I am ‘shocked’ that the White House homepage does not have a Spanish-language version. Here we go again.”
Critics have called the removal an exclusionary move that undermines outreach to the Spanish-speaking community, a population that has played an increasingly significant role in U.S. elections. While the White House has not commented on the decision, the move has reignited concerns over Trump’s stance on diversity and inclusion.
