Trump Leaves White House Petitions Website Online

The White House’s “We the People” online petition website that began under the Obama administration is apparently here to stay under the Trump administration.

For federal employees who may have enjoyed using the White House petitions website during the Obama administration, they will be happy to know that it has remained online after the transition to the Trump administration.

The “We the People” petitions website has been wiped clean of existing petitions as part of the transition. Perhaps somewhat ironically, the first petition created was directed at Trump himself, asking him to “immediately release” his full tax returns. That petition has reached the necessary 100k mark to get a response from the White House since it was posted. In response, Kellyanne Conway, counselor to President Trump, said that the tax returns were not going to be released.

Throughout the Obama administration, a number of petitions were started, presumably by federal employees, asking the administration to grant higher pay raises or extra days off of leave around holidays. In one case, federal employees were given an extra day off at Christmas, and the petition may well have influenced the decision as it met the minimum number of signatures and received a response from the administration.

Petitions started on the site will still have the same required number of signatures (100,000) that they did previously in order to be eligible to receive a reply. They also have to hit the 100k mark within 30 days to fulfill the requirement.

About the Author

Ian Smith is one of the co-founders of FedSmith.com. He has over 20 years of combined experience in media and government services, having worked at two government contracting firms and an online news and web development company prior to his current role at FedSmith.