The disappearance of the Spanish-language version of the official White House website Friday afternoon took many by surprise, with the previously active WhiteHouse.gov/espanol suddenly giving visitors the following error message:
Alfonso Dastis, Spanish foreign minister, told the Guardian Monday that the site's removal was "not a good idea" for the U.S and its global reputation. "We regret that the Spanish version of the website was deleted, it doesn't seem like a good idea," Dastis said. "We believe it is not a good idea to give up on such a communication tool, given that this is a country with 52 million Spanish speakers."
Sean "Period" Spicer, current White House press secretary, claimed to reporters Monday that the Spanish translation's absence was merely a casualty of their busy "Day One" schedule. "There was a lot of work to do, and we had done a lot of work on the website to make sure that we were prepared to get as much information up as fast as possible," Spicer said, according to the Washington Post. "We are continuing to build out the website both in the issue areas and in that area. But we've got the IT folks working overtime to continue to get all of that up to speed. Trust me, it's going to take a little bit more time, but we're working piece by piece to get that done."
At the time of this writing, WhiteHouse.gov/espanol was still hitting visitors with an error page.
Meanwhile, Trump spent Monday abandoning Obama's signature Trans-Pacific Partnership deal:
Trump also ordered a federal hiring freeze and reinstated a potentially devastating Reagan-era ban on foreign aid to health providers who included abortion in their family-planning program, the New York Timesreported.
"The Trump Administration and Republican leadership have made no secret of their dangerous obsession with rolling back reproductive rights," New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen said in a statement Monday. "President Trump’s reinstatement of the global gag rule ignores decades of research, instead favoring ideological politics over women and families. We know that when family planning services and contraceptives are easily accessible, there are fewer unplanned pregnancies, maternal deaths, and abortions. And when women have control over their reproductive health, it improves the long-term health of mothers and children and creates a lasting economic benefit."