Michael Hernandez
28 February 2025•Update: 28 February 2025
WASHINGTON
US President Donald Trump plans to sign an executive order to make English the official language of the nation, according to a report published Friday.
Trump's order would rescind a 25-year-old order from ex-President Bill Clinton that required federal agencies and other groups that receive federal funding to provide language assistance to non-English speakers.
A summary of the order viewed by the Wall Street Journal said federal agencies would still be allowed to provide information and services in languages other than English.
The summary said Trump's goal in making English the official language of the nation would "promote unity, establish efficiency in the government and provide a pathway to civic engagement." The order would establish a national language for first time in the nation's nearly 250-year history.
Within hours of assuming office, the Trump administration shut down the Spanish-language version of the White House website and social media accounts.
Spanish is the US's second-most spoken language, a reflection of the nation's strong Latino community. Some 62% of people who speak a language other than English at home in the US speak Spanish, according to a 2022 report from the US Census Bureau.
Trump's new order comes as he continues his crackdown on migration to the US, which has seen thousands of migrants, primarily from Latin America, deported as Trump promises to carry out the largest mass deportation program in US history.
Trump has ridiculed the speaking of languages other than English, saying during his 2024 presidential campaign that migrants who do not speak English are being "dropped" into US communities.
"We have languages coming into our country. We don’t have one instructor in our entire nation that can speak that language," Trump told the Conservative Political Action Conference in February 2024. "These are languages — it’s the craziest thing — they have languages that nobody in this country has ever heard of. It’s a very horrible thing."
Trump, who does not speak any language other than English, also criticized fellow Republican presidential nominee, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, for speaking Spanish on the campaign trail during the 2016 White House race.
“This is a country where we speak English, not Spanish,” Trump said during a 2015 presidential debate.
As with so many of Trump's action since he assumed office last month, the president's latest act will come in the form of an executive order, which unlike legislation passed by Congress and signed by the president, do not carry the full weight of law. They are written directives to federal agencies telling them to take specific actions.
They can be overturned by the courts, an act of Congress, or simply by the president's successor who can sign a new order overturning the action.
