❓WHAT HAPPENED: Secretary of State Marco Rubio reinstated Times New Roman as the standard typeface for official communications, replacing Calibri, which was introduced under the former Biden regime.
👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: Secretary of State Marco Rubio, former Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and Lucas de Groot, the designer of Calibri.
📍WHEN & WHERE: The change went into effect on Wednesday, December 10, across the U.S. State Department.
💬KEY QUOTE: “Serif typefaces remain the standard in courts, legislatures, and across federal agencies where the permanence and authority of the written record are paramount.” – State Department spokesman.
🎯IMPACT: The move is part of a broader effort to eliminate “wasteful” diversity measures and restore traditional standards in federal agencies.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has directed the U.S. State Department to revert to Times New Roman as its official typeface, reversing the 2023 decision by former Secretary of State Antony Blinken to adopt Calibri. A cable sent to U.S. diplomats stated that the shift was intended “to restore decorum and professionalism to the Department’s written work products and abolish yet another wasteful DEIA program.” The decision aligns with the broader effort by the Trump administration to eliminate what it characterizes as “woke” and “diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility” initiatives across the federal government.
Calibri’s designer, Dutch typographer Lucas de Groot, expressed mixed reactions to the news. “The decision to abandon Calibri on the grounds of it being a so-called ‘wasteful diversity font’ is both hilarious and regrettable,” he said. De Groot noted that Calibri was created for legibility on digital displays and became Microsoft Office’s default font in 2007 because of its clarity at smaller sizes.
A State Department spokesman defended the return to the serif typeface, saying, “Serif typefaces remain the standard in courts, legislatures, and across federal agencies where the permanence and authority of the written record are paramount.” Times New Roman had been the Department’s standard from 2004 until Blinken’s transition to Calibri in 2023.
The move comes as the Trump administration accelerates a series of high-profile reversals of DEI-related policies. Earlier this year, the administration removed members of the advisory boards for the nation’s military service academies, arguing that the institutions had been steered by “woke” ideology and needed to be realigned with traditional military values. In another action, senior Pentagon officials imposed a deadline for transgender personnel to leave the armed forces, part of a broader rollback of woke military regulations. The administration has also sought to restrict federal agencies from using “woke AI,” issuing directives aimed at preventing contractors from deploying artificial intelligence systems perceived as ideologically influenced.
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