President Donald J. Trump has been in office for a few days, but one thing in America has already been subject to significant changes: the White House website.
Throughout the transition from the Obama Administration to the Trump Administration, a heavily discussed issue on social media has been alterations to the official U.S. government website. Changes were expected to reflect the new staff and administration, as occurred from President Bush to President Obama, but there have been large amounts of information altered or removed since Inauguration Day.
For instance, the Spanish language translation of the site is no longer available. According to The Guardian, the U.S. currently has more Spanish speakers than Spain, totaling about 41 million native Spanish speakers and 11 million bilingual citizens. Studies estimate that the amount of Spanish speakers in the U.S. will only increase in the years to come. Removing the translation was called temporary by Secretary Sean Spicer, but it is unknown how long a portion of Americans may be unable to read their government’s website.
Additionally, the White House website no longer provides information regarding civil rights. According to The Wrap, while the site during Obama’s terms contained tabs such as “Empowerment Through Diversity” and “Fighting Discrimination,” the only mention of anything related to civil rights is the “Standing Up For Our Law Enforcement Community” tab. There is also no longer any information or data on the LGBT community, which Obama openly supported. This fact caught the public’s attention, as Trump has negatively regarded LGBTs in the past, and Vice President Mike Pence has done the same, according to TIME.
There is also no mention of climate change or global warming located on whitehouse.gov anymore. The site under the Obama Administration had information about his clean energy plan. Trump has been a notorious climate change skeptic since the start of his campaign, and his site now reflects this; the only information about the environment involves Trump’s plan to increase American drilling operations, removing environmental regulations to improve the economy and create jobs.
After the inauguration, information about the judicial branch of government vanished from the site as well, but it has since been replaced.
The changes to the White House website have caused some uproar on social media sites like Facebook among Americans skeptical of Trump, as well as those worried about what his presidency will do for minorities and issues like climate change. There may be updates to the website in the future; check in at whitehouse.gov.
