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On Saturday, March 1, 2025, President Donald Trump declared English as the United States’ official tongue, pitching it as a glue to bond a nation stitched together by waves of immigrants from every corner of the globe.
The White House rolled out Trump’s executive decree, which blasts out that it’s “high time” English gets crowned as the country’s linguistic cornerstone—a move he’s betting will tighten the American unity.
“A nationally designated language is at the core of a unified and cohesive society, and the United States is strengthened by a citizenry that can freely exchange ideas in one shared language,” the document states.
The order revokes a presidential mandate from the 1990s under then-president Bill Clinton requiring federal agencies and agencies receiving federal funding to provide assistance to non-English speakers.
According to the new document, agencies will still have flexibility to decide how much help to offer in languages other than English.
“Nothing in this order… requires or directs any change in the services provided by any agency,” the executive order states.
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It adds that agency heads are empowered to determine what is necessary “to fulfill their respective agencies’ mission and efficiently provide Government services to the American people.”
Since reclaiming the Oval Office, President Donald Trump has unleashed a torrent of executive commands, aiming to etch his conservative vision deep into America’s bones—but the courts are already pushing back hard, especially when he tries to yank funding Congress greenlit.
The White House tips its hat to the fact that over 350 tongues echo across the U.S., yet Trump’s latest decree doubles down, insisting English has been the nation’s heartbeat “since our Republic took its first breath,” pointing to the Declaration of Independence and Constitution as proof—both penned in the king’s language.
Government stats from 2019 peg nearly 68 million folks chatting in something other than English at home—a Babel-like hum beneath the stars and stripes. English might rule the roost, but over 40 million Americans are thought to incorporate Spanish into their daily lives.
Beyond that, you’ve got waves of Chinese and Vietnamese speakers, plus a constellation of Native American dialects, all swirling together in a linguistic mosaic that’s as American as it gets.
