If the current White House website could be summarized into one word, it would be “authority.”
Trump’s new White House website marks a striking difference from the more toned down White House websites of prior presidencies.
The Website
The White House website, www.whitehouse.gov, changes with each presidency. During every presidential transition, IT workers at the White House work to create another White House website from its bare bones, a website that represents each presidency. Thus, by analyzing each presidential website, we are able to infer many things about the presidential administration. In fact, the first White House website under the Clinton administration was made to reflect Clinton’s support for the IT industry, which was still in its developing days during that time.
The New Website
The website mainly repeats the rhetoric Trump has continued to use throughout his campaign and presidency. “Unleashing dominance.” “Make America Great Again.” But perhaps the most noticeable change in the new website is the increased usage of all-caps across the sentences in the website. It seems to bring in a sense of authority and invigoration to Trump supporters— and to his opponents, an indication of what they believe to be Trump’s total consolidation of power. It even differs from Trump’s first presidency 8 years ago – the White House website back then surprisingly resembles Biden’s presidency.
Things that Disappeared from the Website
Another major feature gone from Trump’s White House page is the Spanish language translation of the website. The Biden Administration offered the website in full in Spanish, a nod to the fact that a significant part of the U.S. population speaks only Spanish. While Harrison Fields, a White House spokesman, stated that the “Spanish-language version of the website” would be available shortly after Trump’s inauguration, even after 2 months into the Trump administration, there has been no follow up on this. The website is hardly the only thing that was not offered a Spanish counterpart – @LaCasaBlaca, White House’s official Spanish account on X, also disappeared shortly after.
