Trump To Sign Order Making English Official U.S. Language
President Trump is preparing to sign an executive order this Friday that will officially declare English as the official language of the United States.
A White House source confirmed that this order will roll back a directive issued by President Clinton in 2000, which required organizations receiving federal funding to offer language assistance to individuals who don’t speak English.
As reported by The Washington Times, this would mark the first time in the nation’s 249-year history that the United States formally designates an official language.
A summary of the executive order, obtained by The Wall Street Journal, reveals that federal agencies would still retain the flexibility to offer documents and services in other languages if necessary. The summary explains that the aim of making English the national language is to “promote unity, improve government efficiency, and create a pathway to civic engagement.”
Throughout his presidency, Trump has made combating illegal immigration a top priority, pledging to carry out what his administration describes as the largest deportation effort in American history.
During the most recent election campaign, Trump warned that migrants who don’t speak English were being “dropped” into communities like Springfield, Ohio. He also raised concerns that non-English-speaking students were facing significant communication challenges in classrooms.
“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.”
Trump’s stance on language goes back years. During a 2015 debate, he criticized former Florida Governor Jeb Bush for using Spanish on the campaign trail. “This is a country where we speak English, not Spanish,” Trump said at the time.
Shortly after Trump first took office, the Spanish-language version of the White House website was taken down. The administration also shut down the official Spanish-language account on X, known as @LaCasaBlanca.
Data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows that over 78% of Americans speak only English at home. However, millions of residents speak other languages, including Spanish, Chinese, and Tagalog, alongside dozens of Native American languages still spoken today.
According to The Wall Street Journal, more than 30 states have already passed laws establishing English as their official language.
Since the civil rights movement in the 1960s, multiple laws have been enacted to guarantee access to services and opportunities for non-English speakers. Despite this, Republicans in Congress have made numerous, yet unsuccessful, attempts to pass legislation officially declaring English the national language.
Vice President J.D. Vance, during his time in the Senate representing Ohio, introduced the English Language Unity Act. Co-sponsored by Senator Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), the bill aimed to require the federal government to conduct all official business in English and establish a language proficiency requirement for citizenship, The Wall Street Journal reported.
At the same time, Trump continues to reshape the federal workforce. Earlier this week, the president revealed that roughly one million federal employees were “on the bubble” because they had not responded to an email asking them to justify why they should remain in their roles.
During the administration’s first Cabinet meeting of this second term, Trump’s adviser and head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Elon Musk, addressed the issue of the unanswered emails.
“We’re going to send another email,” Musk said. “But our goal is not to be capricious or unfair. We want to give people every opportunity to send an email. And the email could simply be ‘What I’m working on is too sensitive or classified to describe.’ Like, literally just that would be sufficient. You know, I think this is just common sense.”
Moments later, Trump added his own comments, making clear that those who don’t respond could face serious consequences.
“Those million people that haven’t responded though, Elon, they are on the bubble,” Trump said. “You know, I wouldn’t say that we’re thrilled about it. You know, they haven’t responded. Now, maybe they don’t exist. Maybe we’re paying people that don’t exist. Don’t forget we just got here. This group just got here. But those people are on the bubble, as they say. Maybe they’re gonna be gone.”