Trump Scrubs LGBT, Climate Change, Civil Rights from White House Website- Fiction!
Summary of eRumor:
President Donald Trump removed the references to LGBT rights, climate change and civil rights from the White House website immediately after taking office.
The Truth:
References to things like LGBT rights, climate change and civil rights didn’t appear on the White House website hours after President Trump was sworn into office — but that doesn’t necessarily mean that the Trump administration removed them.
In a blog posted on October 31, 2016, the White House explained the “digital transition” that would occur when a new administration took office. Included I that was this plan to freeze and archive the contents of WhiteHouse.gov from Obama’s time in office, just as has been done in previous administrations:
Similar to the Clinton and Bush White House websites, President Obama’s WhiteHouse.gov will be preserved on the web and frozen after January 20th and made available at ObamaWhiteHouse.gov. The incoming White House will receive the WhiteHouse.gov domain and all content that has been posted to WhiteHouse.gov during the Obama administration will be archived with NARA.
As a result of Obama’s White House website being frozen and archived, incoming President Trump’s website had very little content, posts, links and briefings featured on it when he took office. And, while it’s true that Trump’s White House website didn’t include references to LGBT rights, civil rights and climate change immediately after he took office, the website didn’t yet contain much of anything at all.
For comparison sake, a screenshot of President Obama’s White House website the day he took office didn’t include much content, either:
So, while it’s possible that President Trump’s White House website won’t include any references to civil rights, climate change or LGBT rights after his administration settles in and adds more content — claims that Trump had scrubbed those terms from the White House website immediately after taking office are “fiction.”