Vice President JD Vance said the American people “need a common language,” in a Monday post on X morning, referring to English.
“What’s reasonable is to want to share a language with your neighbor,” Vance said on X. “How do you borrow a cup of sugar? Resolve disagreements? Have a nice conversation? You need a common language, and in America, that language is English.”
Vance was responding to a clip from a podcast in which he said, “It is totally reasonable and acceptable for American citizens to look at their next-door neighbors and say, ‘I want to live next to people who I have something in common with. I don’t want to live next to four families of strangers.'”
“The far left became so deranged on immigration that they’re attacking people for wanting to be able to speak to their neighbors,” Vance said on X.
The Trump administration made it a priority at the beginning of 2025 to address English language standards in America as a cultural issue. In March, President Donald Trump signed an executive order declaring English the “official language” of the United States, saying a designated national language is “at the core of a unified and cohesive society.” He wrote that the purpose of a designated language is “to promote unity, cultivate a shared American culture for all citizens, ensure consistency in government operations, and create a pathway to civic engagement.”
“In welcoming new Americans, a policy of encouraging the learning and adoption of our national language will make the United States a shared home and empower new citizens to achieve the American dream,” the order reads. “Speaking English not only opens doors economically, but it helps newcomers engage in their communities, participate in national traditions, and give back to our society.”
The Justice Department announced in July that it would lead the effort to enforce Trump’s order across federal government agencies.
“The Department of Justice will lead the effort to codify the President’s Executive Order and eliminate wasteful virtue-signaling policies across government agencies to promote assimilation over division,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement.
According to five-year data released by the Census Bureau in 2023, 78.3% of Americans speak English in their households, a 0.5% decrease from the 78.7% who spoke English in their households during the previous five-year period, 2013 to 2017. After English, the next most common language spoken in U.S. households is Spanish, with 60% of people who speak a language other than English speaking it.
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“Across most age groups, the majority of the population who spoke a language other than English at home still spoke English very well,” Adrienne Griffiths, a Census Bureau survey statistician, said in a statement on the results.
About 52% of immigrants above the age of 5 who move to the United States are proficient in English, according to the Pew Research Center.
