During his campaign for the presidency, Trump expressed concerns about migrant students who do not speak English and struggle to communicate with their peers.
Last year, he stated: “We have languages coming into our country. We don’t have one instructor in our entire nation that can speak that language.
“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.”
During the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump criticized then Florida Governor Jeb Bush for using Spanish while campaigning, asserting, “This is a country where we speak English, not Spanish.”
The Wall Street Journal reports that Trump is moving forward to revoke a federal mandate established by President Bill Clinton.
This mandate required agencies to provide language assistance to non-English speakers. Sources from the White House indicate that changes are imminent.
While agencies can still offer these services, the Wall Street Journal notes that the order aims to ‘promote unity, establish efficiency in the government and provide a pathway to civic engagement’.
This development follows a meeting between Trump and British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer in Washington on Thursday, February 27.
The meeting, which took place at The White House, has been described as ‘awkward’ by observers.
Body language expert Adam Lyons, speaking for BetUS, analyzed the interaction, suggesting that both leaders engaged in a subtle power struggle.
Lyons observed: “Trump pushed his hand over on the handshake to ‘dominate’ and held it too long. Starmer felt it and even moved his hand to the sleeve after it to ‘fix’ his clothing.
“Also Trump did a shoulder grab to assert dominance. And then Starmer tried to fight back by putting his hand on his shoulder too… but wasn’t able to get the leverage.”
