Opinion | Trump Gave Us a Piece of His Mind

Bret Stephens: Hola, Gail.¿Qué opinas sobre la insistencia de Donald Trump en que el inglés sea nuestro idioma oficial?Gail Collins: Hey, Bret, great to be back conversing.

And in Spanish no less, a language I once attempted — and failed — to learn.It was my second effort at becoming bilingual.

In college, I took Russian courses in the hopes that I’d eventually be able to read “War and Peace” in the original.Couldn’t even make it through “A Visit to Grandmother” in Chapter 1 of the textbook.Bret: Good thing Trump didn’t make Russian the official language.

That’ll be next week, tovarich.Gail: Must say it never occurred to me to demand that all others should abandon their native languages so I wouldn’t have to be reminded of my ineptitude.So bottom line: No to making English the official language.It’s not a proposal to solve a problem; it’s just another loopy and nasty Trump appeal to the throngs.Bret: I have no problem with it.

French is the official language of France, Spanish of Spain, Danish of Denmark, Swedish of Sweden — and none of them are any less free and democratic for it.Democrats shouldn’t allow themselves to be baited by Trump into opposing it, which only serves his political purposes.

In fact, Democrats should insist on making English the official language and then demand that Trump learn to speak and write it properly.Gail: Hehe.OK, that won me over.Bret: The other thought I’d offer Democrats is not to make pathetic spectacles of themselves.

Which reminds me: What did you think of Trump’s speech to Congress last week?We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe....