Trump to make English the official language of the U.S. and remove language assistance for non-English speakers
In it’s nearly 250-year history, the United States has never had an official language. Donald Trump is now changing that.
Many Americans (and non-Americans for that matter) are surprised to find out that the United States does not have - and has never had - an official language. As English is the most commonly spoken and all official documents are written in English, most people assume that English is the official language. Well, president Donald Trump is now making that fact.
JUST IN: Donald Trump plans to sign an executive order making English the official U.S. language, WSJ reports.
— Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) February 28, 2025
The order will revoke a Clinton-era mandate requiring federally funded agencies to provide language assistance to non-English speakers.
Thoughts? pic.twitter.com/5pUVlqYHoD
English will be the official language of the U.S. - what that means
Most countries do in fact have an official language (nearly 180 of 195 countries in the world), so the U.S. was actually unique in not having one.
32 of the 50 states and all five U.S. territories already declared English as the official language, but Trump will sign an executive order making English the official language of the United States at the federal level.
While that fact alone doesn’t change things much, Trump will also take away a mandate that required federal agencies and recipients of federal funding to provide language assistance to non-English speakers. The agencies will be able to decide for themselves whether they want to provide services in languages other than English.
During Trump’s campaign against former president Joe Biden in 2024, he described non-English languages coming into the country as “a very horrible thing”. So, while he’s making English the official language, he’s at the same time potentially making it more difficult for some non-English speakers to learn.
"We have languages coming into our country," Mr. Trump said at CPAC, [ —]outside Washington, D.C., 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." https://t.co/CZhST5b3HU
— Susanna 🐊 (@puustikorva) February 28, 2025
The executive order making English the official language of the United States is meant to “empower immigrants” to learn English and reach the “American dream”.
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