As soon as the clock struck 12 Noon on inauguration day, the new presidential administration launched its own version of WhiteHouse.gov — complete with the removal of all references to climate change, civil rights, healthcare reform and the LGBT community. At the same time, a subsequent behind-the-scenes spat with the National Park Service’s Twitter account (and other governmental agencies with similarly rebellious social media presences) made it seem as though President Donald Trump’s digital arrival wouldn’t go so smoothly. Sure enough, recent visitors to the redesigned White House website discovered yet another glaring omission from its pages.
According to Gizmodo, the entry for the “Judicial Branch” on the website’s updated “Our Government” section is gone. Sure enough, anyone who Googles and manages to find an old link will only be greeted by a simple landing page and the statement, “Thank you for your interest in this subject.”
Paul Soulellis, a graphic designer based in New York, first drew attention to the discrepancy Sunday night with a series of tweets comparing the new WhiteHouse.gov’s “Our Government” section to the previous administration’s:
judicial branch missing from https://t.co/5JUMSLxOrP pic.twitter.com/aKWeLz248b
— Paul Soulellis (@soulellis) January 30, 2017
was there earlier this month pic.twitter.com/1hBt6w4Xqz
— Paul Soulellis (@soulellis) January 30, 2017
The apparent nonexistence of the third major branch of government from the White House’s official website may just be a mistake. After all, as Gizmodo points out, the current landing page for the “Executive Branch” entry makes no mention of Trump. Instead, it exclaims “President Barack Obama is the 44th President of the United States” and briefly discusses the history of the executive branch, suggesting the new White House personnel in charge of the website’s editorial transition missed a few pertinent steps along the way.
Then again, the missing branch is also quite ominous. After all, Trump’s controversial executive order barring immigrants from seven predominantly Muslim countries spurred massive protests throughout the weekend and a federal judge’s decision to temporarily stay portions of the order’s immigration ban late Saturday night. A court order that, despite the assistance of politicians like Sen. Cory Booker (D-New Jersey) at Dulles International Airport, several U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials reportedly ignored before the Department of Homeland Security intervened.
(Via Gizmodo)