White House relaunches petition site

The Trump administration has relaunched the White House petition website after it was shut down more than a month.

The website, Petitions.WhiteHouse.gov, was shut down in December and relaunched Saturday. Administration officials have promised to respond to petitions that cross the signature threshold “within 60 days,” despite several popular petitions that remain on the site unanswered. 

The site allows users to create petitions that will receive an official White House response if they receive 100,000 signatures.

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Several petitions critical of the president remain unanswered on the website, including two demanding the release of his tax returns and one that demands his resignation.

Other petitions, including one declaring “Antifa” protesters as “terrorists,” also remain unanswered, despite crossing the 100,000-signature threshold.

Former President Obama created the “We the People” petition site in 2011 as a way for constituents to interact directly with the White House.

In December, the White House told The Associated Press that it would begin responding to petitions once the new site was launched.

Revamping the website will also save taxpayers $1.3 million per year, the White House said.

The rest of the White House website was redesigned and relaunched last year as part of a cost-cutting move by the Trump administration.

“We will save taxpayers almost $3 million per year as a result of the redesigned site,” a White House official said in December. “The president is focused on making smart use of taxpayer dollars and we thought that the previous site was, frankly, costing far too much.”