White House temporarily removes petition tool We The People

The White House is temporarily removing We The People, a petition tool, from its website after 11 months of silence, promising to respond to public concerns in 2018. The Trump administration said the platform, used extensively by critics and less frequently by allies, will be removed Dec 19 and return in late January as a new site. A White House official said all existing petitions and responses will be restored in 2018, 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.