White House Spanish portal taken off

President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania arrive at the National Prayer Service at Washington National Cathedral in Washington DC. Pic/AFP

Within hours of President Donald Trump's inauguration, the new administration took down the Spanish-language version of the official White House website. The site now gives users an ‘Error 404' message. It also included a ‘Go Home' button that directed viewers to a page featuring a video montage of Trump in his first term and on the campaign trail. The button was later updated to read ‘Go To Home Page'.

Hispanic leaders and communication strategy experts expressed surprise with the page's removal, given Trump's popularity with certain Latino voters. Trump had also removed the Spanish version of the page in 2017. At that time, White House officials said they would reinstate it. President Joe Biden reinstated the page in 2021.

‘Diversity staff' put on leave

The Trump administration has also directed that all federal diversity, equity and inclusion staff be put on paid leave, and that agencies develop plans to lay them off, according to a memo on Tuesday from the Office of Personnel Management.

The memo follows an executive order Trump signed on his first day ordering a sweeping dismantling of the federal government's diversity and inclusion programs that could touch on everything from anti-bias training to funding for minority farmers and homeowners. DEI office staffers are to be placed on paid leave by 5 pm on Wednesday.

Tariffs on China

The President has said he is considering to impose a 10 per cent tariff on Chinese imports starting February 1 to curb the flow of deadly drug fentanyl that Beijing sends to Mexico and Canada, eventually landing up in the US. Fentanyl is a highly addictive synthetic opioid, which, according to the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), presents the deadliest drug threat in the country.

US$ 500 billion AI initiative

Trump announced a US$ 500 billion for AI infrastructure through a new company, which is being created in partnership with Oracle, SoftBank and Open AI. The venture, called Stargate, adds to tech companies' significant investments in US data centres - huge buildings full of servers for computing power. The three companies plan to contribute funds to the venture, which will be open to investors and start with 10 data centres already under construction in Texas.

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