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White House removes ‘We the People’ petition tool
U.S. President Donald Trump.
Photo: Gage SkidmoreThe White House has removed a petition tool from its website after 11 months of silence.
The government promised to respond to public concerns next year.
The Trump administration said the platform, used extensively by critics and less frequently by allies, was removed at midnight Tuesday and would return in late January as a new site.
A White House official said all existing petitions and responses would be restored next year, when petitions that reach the required 100,000 signatures will begin receiving responses.
The Trump administration has yet to respond to any of the 17 petitions that have reached that threshold since Trump took office on Jan. 20, 2017.
Among them are petitions calling on President Donald Trump to release his tax returns and to place his assets in a blind trust.
Others that have reached 100,000 signatures call on Trump to preserve and cease funding for the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
The government said the move would save taxpayers $1.3 million annually.
Initially named “We the People” by the Obama administration, the site launched in 2011.
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