Trump era sees White House delete Spanish language version of its website

Donald Trump settles into the Oval Office at the White House. Photo: AFP

The era of Donald Trump as the 45^th US president is barely a few days old but already his role as the “Most Powerful Man in the World” has caused waves of protest around the world.

Much of this global dismay is aimed at things he may or may not do, but Spain already has a reason to be aggrieved – the apparent deletion of the White House’s Spanish language version of its website…

Visitors to the page were met with a ‘page not found’ message on Monday, and it is so far unclear whether Trump’s administration has decided to delete the service altogether, or is simply updating it.

That said, in a nation with 52 million Spanish speakers, it does appear a little careless to remove such vital content written in the first language of so many US nationals.

Spain, naturally, is concerned at the apparent deletion of the pages. “We regret that the Spanish version of the website was deleted, it doesn’t seem like a good idea,” Spain’s Foreign Minister Alfonso Dastis has said. “We believe it is not a good idea to give up on such a communication tool, given that this is a country with 52 million Spanish speakers.”

The US population is 320 million, of which around 57 million would be considered Hispanic. In November’s election, it is estimated that 13 million Latin Americans voted, although the majority would have backed Trump’s Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.

A statement issued by Spain’s government following the removal of the service reminded the new President of the Spanish language’s role in helping to “bring together the multicultural North American society for centuries”.

During the election campaign, Trump made a series of less-than-complimentary remarks about Latinos living in the US, and the fear is that his tenure could spell bad news for Mexicans and other Hispanics who call the US their home.

In contrast, former US president Barack Obama and his family are spending their first four weeks post-White House at the home of the US ambassador to Spain, located in the decidedly pro-Latino surrounds of Southern California.