'Awkward': MAGA GOP rep walks back support of Trump order after site serving constituents goes dark

30 July

Photo of Rep. Carlos Gimenez during the 117th Congress, Image via Wikimedia Commons.

During his 2016 campaign, Donald Trump aggressively attacked former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush — a fluent Spanish speaker and one of the other presidential primary candidates — for speaking Spanish on the campaign trail. But in 2024, Trump's fourth presidential campaign used Spanish-language ads as part of its Latino outreach — only for Trump to issue an executive order declaring English to be the United States' official language after he returned to the White House.

Trump, according to critics, isn't the only Republican who has done a lot of flip-flopping on the Spanish language being used in the United States.

When Trump issued his executive order, Rep. Carlos Gimenez (R-Florida) told NOTUS that it was "the right call." But separately, Gimenez expressed a different view.

When NOTUS' Shifra Dayak told the South Florida congressman that the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) had shut down its non-English-language resource site, he described that move as unnecessary.

Gimenez told Dayak, "I don't understand why you'd make an issue out of it. I understand what the president is trying to do with one language, but if somebody feels more comfortable, or may speak English but reads Spanish, I don't have an problem either way."

In a July 30 post on X, formerly Twitter, The Cook Political Report's Matthew Klein tweeted Gimenez's comments to Dayak and noted, "Fascinating little tidbit here from @NOTUSreports on Rep. Carlos Gimenez's awkward position after backing President Trump's order making English the official language. Approximately 70% of his district speaks Spanish at home, per the Census Bureau."

Gimenez, in fact, tweets in both English and Spanish on his X account, @RepCarlos.

Occupy Democrats' Grant Stern tweeted, "Miami Republican Rep. @CarlosGimenezFL planted his thirsty politician lips on Donald Trump's chocolate starfish when he issued an English-only Executive Order to the government. Now that the DOJ just zorched its Spanish website, the Cuban-American is singing a new tune."

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