President Trump to sign executive order making English the official language of US
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump is prepared to sign an executive order designating English as the official language of the United States for the first time in the nation's history, a White House official said Friday.
Trump's action will rescind a mandate from former President Bill Clinton in 2000 that required federal agencies and recipients of federal funding to provide language assistance to non-English speakers, according to the White House.
The move comes as Trump has moved aggressively in the first five weeks of his second term to crack down on immigration, which over the past half-century has brought people from around the world who speak hundreds of languages.
However, federal departments and agencies will still be allowed to provide documents and services in languages other than English, the White House said in a summary of the order. "Agencies will have flexibility to decide how and when to offer services in languages other than English to best serve the American people and fulfill their agency mission," the summary says.
Between 350 and 430 languages are estimated to be spoken in the U.S., with English overwhelmingly the most common.
The White House said the goal of the order is national unity, arguing English as the national language "fosters national cohesion, helps newcomers engage in communities and traditions, and enriches our shared culture." The order "encourages new Americans to adopt a national language that opens doors to greater opportunities," the White House said.
Thirty-two states have already designated English as their official language by legislative statute or constitutional amendments.
The Wall Street Journal first reported Trump's upcoming order. Trump has long derided the multitude of languages spoken in the U.S. while discussing migrants who unlawfully enter the country.
“We have languages coming into our country. We don’t have one instructor in our entire nation that can speak that language,” Trump said last year. “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."
After Trump's inauguration in January, the White House quickly removed a Spanish version of the White House website and its Spanish X account, @LaCasaBlanca.
Reach Joey Garrison on X @joeygarrison.