Donald Trump to make history by signing executive order to make English official language of the US
Donald Trump is set to make history by signing an executive order to make English the official language of the United States, according to multiple White House sources.
While English is already the most commonly used language in the country, the US has never had an official language at the federal level across its nearly 250-year history.
However, every major document, such as the Constitution and Declaration of Independence, has been written in English.
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During his campaign last year, Trump decried other languages entering the US, saying at the Conservative Political Action Conference: "We have languages coming into our country.
"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 is expected to sign the executive order, which rescinds a mandate issued by former President Bill Clinton in 2000 that required federal agencies and recipients of federal funding to provide language assistance to non-English speakers, The Wall Street Journal reports.
"Establishing English as the official language promotes unity, establishes efficiency in government operations, and creates a pathway for civic engagement," the White House wrote in the fact sheet shared to ABC News.
Since his official inauguration, which took place a little over a month ago (20 January), the 78-year-old Republican leader has signed a flurry of at least 70 executive orders.
Some of these include renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, banning gender transitions for people under 19 and ending birthright citizenship.
Earlier this week (27 February), Trump sat down with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer to discuss his upcoming 'unprecedented' second state visit to the UK.
During their meeting, which has since been likened to a scene from the hit 2003 rom-com Love Actually, Starmer presented Trump with a letter from King Charles III that contained a request telling him: "This is really special. This has never happened before. This is unprecedented.
"This is truly historic."
The letter in question invited Trump to the UK for a second state visit, with the first seeing the late Queen Elizabeth II host the president six years ago back in 2019.
"That's a great, great honour. And that says at Windsor - that's really something," Trump responded as he accepted the invitation from the King, making him the only elected political leader in modern times to be invited to two state visits by a British monarch.
Clearly wooed by the royal family member's 'unprecedented' invite, Trump also took the time to say some nice words about King Charles: "He's a beautiful man, a wonderful man - I've gotten to know him very well, actually, first term and now second term.
"We've known each other now for a little while. This is not our first meeting. He loves his country. And so, that's our common theme. He loves his country. And I love our country."
Trump added: "And we also have two countries that have gotten along for the longest period of time. Number one ally on each side. We have France, Australia, a lot of good ones, but we've had a long-time relationship, a long time, hundreds of years."
Topics: Donald Trump, US News, Politics, News
Rhiannon Ingle