ArcaMax

SAN DIEGO -- President Donald Trump is a shameless cultural warrior who pits citizens against one another. Perhaps he does it for his own amusement, or because a fractured country is easier to control, or because picking on groups tickles his political base which is mostly made up of white people who want to turn back the clock.

Trump has a knack for dividing Americans by race, class, gender, ethnicity, sexual identity and national origin. Now we can add one more item to that list: language.

The president's latest mission is to defend English even though our mother tongue is doing fine. Immigrants come here speaking only their native language. Their children will learn English and speak both languages. One day, their grandchildren will speak only English.

Undeterred by the realities of Assimilation 101, Trump recently signed an executive order declaring English the official language of the United States. The measure -- which is silly and symbolic, with no real power -- is the first of its kind for this multilingual country.

The order reads: "A nationally designated language is at the core of a unified and cohesive society, and the United States is strengthened by a citizenry that can freely exchange ideas in one shared language."

One shared language? Whatever country Trump is talking about, it ain't the United States. Americans are linguistic mutts. According to the U.S. Census, more than 400 languages are spoken in this country.

This despite the fact that more than 30 states have passed their own versions of "official English" laws. A lot of good that did, right?

Trump's order continues: "To promote unity, cultivate a shared American culture for all citizens, ensure consistency in government operations, and create a pathway to civic engagement, it is in America's best interest for the Federal Government to designate one -- and only one -- official language."

You know what would really be in America's best interest? If voters would stop electing slimy and opportunistic politicians who try to divide and conquer. And why? To scare up votes from racists and nativists. That's what these culture crusades are always about.

Trump didn't invent that ugly game. But he's a natural.

I realize that, to Trump, America's language stew must sound messy. In a White House meeting during his first term, the president reportedly asked why the United States must take in migrants from "shithole countries." He wanted to admit more people from Norway.

Let's see the effort to make English the official national language for what it is. It's another slab of red meat that our xenophobic leader can toss to those in the MAGA mob who think the United States used to be a pretty nice place until immigrants started showing up.

Apparently, the start date of our national decline was 1683. That's when about a dozen German Mennonite families thirsting for religious freedom arrived in Eastern Pennsylvania. They bought 43,000 acres of land and founded Germantown, not far from Philadelphia.

For the first couple of generations, the Germans did not care much for assimilation. They made sausage, brewed beer and spoke German. They even printed German-language newspapers. This stirred the ire of another newspaper publisher in Philadelphia, Benjamin Franklin. The Boston-born Englishman wasn't just a Founding Father and renowned inventor. He was also one of the nation's first bigots.

Four centuries before Trump badmouthed immigrants from Mexico, Franklin was insulting immigrants from Germany. He considered them "the most ignorant stupid sort of their own nation." He worried that Pennsylvania would become a "colony of aliens" who would become so numerous that they would "Germanize us instead of our Anglifying them." And he was convinced that German immigrants were not smart enough to learn the English language.

If Franklin were alive today, he'd be flying his kite wearing a bright red cap.

By the way, despite the popular misconception that every Latino in the United States got here 10 minutes ago and risks being swept up in Trump's deportation sweep, the truth is that -- by the time the Germans arrived in 1683 -- the Spanish had already founded the provinces that would become Santa Fe, New Mexico, in 1610 and St. Augustine, Florida, in 1565.

The president's paternal grandfather, Frederick Trump, was one of those German immigrants that Franklin would have -- 200 years earlier -- considered inferior to the English. He emigrated to the United States from Kallstadt, Germany, in 1885.

It turns out that Latinos are more "American" than Trump -- and by a country mile. The newbie should show more respect to his hosts. He could start by learning to speak Spanish.

========

To find out more about Ruben Navarrette and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

Copyright 2025 Creators Syndicate, Inc.