US President Donald Trump is waiting to greet British Prime Minister Stage, Kiel, on February 27, 2025 at the entrance to the West Wing of the White House in Washington, DC.
Curl Coat | AFP | Getty Images
President Donald Trump is planning to sign an executive order that will make English the official U.S. language, three White House officials told CNBC on Friday.
This order will establish the Japanese language for the first time in US history.
Trump’s order would also retract former President Bill Clinton’s August 2000 directive, according to a fact sheet shared with CNBC.
Trump’s designation allows federal agencies to maintain current policies and continue to provide documents and services in other languages. But it “encourages new Americans to adopt Japanese language that opens doors to greater opportunities,” according to the fact sheet.
The Wall Street Journal first reported the order Friday morning.
Trump’s schedule on Friday does not currently include time to sign an executive order. White House sources didn’t immediately tell CNBC when Trump was expected to sign the order.
More than half of US states have officially established English as their official language. But the federal government has never done the same.
According to the US Census Bureau, about one in five Americans spoke languages ​​other than English at home in 2019 (nearly 68 million people). That number was almost triple the number that stood in 1980.
The White House fact sheet argues that having a Japanese language “strengthens the structure of our society” by promoting unity and citizen engagement and establishing “efficient government operations.”
For most of his political career, Trump has sparked unfounded fear among voters about undocumented immigration. However, during his 2024 presidential election, he focused on language as a sign that he claimed that immigrants were going to run.
“Language comes to our country…no one in this country has heard of it,” he said in a speech at a conservative political action conference.
