Spain lashes out at Donald Trump over removal of White House website in Spanish

SPAIN’S foreign minister has expressed his regret that the White House’s Spanish language website appears to have been deleted in the days since Donald Trump took office.

Speaking after Trump’s White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said the website was being adapted, Alfonso Dastis told Spanish media it’s removal would be a mistake. 

“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.”

Dastis was backed up in his criticism by Spain’s official government spokesman Inigo Mendez de Vigo, who claimed that Spanish “helped bring together the multicultural North American society for centuries.”

He added that multiple languages “demonstrates the cultural wealth of a nation,” before warning that official American policies would not prevent “the unstoppable spread of our language” in the US.

Trump came to power on an America First platform expected to usher in a new era of nationalism. He campaigned on restricting human traffic from Latin America and deporting millions of Spanish-speaking illegal immigrants.

Since the Spanish government’s interference, online comments have noted that Spain has only recently, and arguably poorly, included Catalan, Galician and Basque in its own cultural wealth.