Dem
47
GOP
53
Donald Trump is going to issue an XO to make English the only
official language
of the United States. More than 30 states have already done this.
Here is the map.
Note the loose correlation between red states and English states. The XO takes this to a new level. It means that all official government business will be conducted only in English. It will also rescind a federal mandate for the government to provide language assistance to people who do not speak English.
In total, over 300 languages are spoken in the U.S., but Trump sees this as a weakness that needs to be addressed. Needless to say, it is tied to his dislike of immigrants, many of whom speak some language other than English. Trump's dislike of other languages goes back a ways. In 2016, Trump criticized Jeb Bush for speaking Spanish at some of his campaign stops. On the other hand, Trump's campaign ran Spanish-language ads in 2024.
One study showed that in 2019, 68 million people spoke another language besides English at home. These languages included Spanish, Mandarin Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, Arabic, and many more. The data also show that 8% of the population speak English less than "very well." The XO is undoubtedly intended just to punish immigrants. If the goal were to improve their English, that would be in there somewhere.
Trump is not the first politician to try to make English the official language. In 1982, then-Sen. S.I. Hayakawa, a California Republican, introduced an amendment to an immigration bill to make English the official language. He took a lot of flak for that.
An estimated 170 countries have multiple official languages. Interestingly enough, England does not have an official language. Neither does Mexico, though Canada has two of them. (V)