Donald Trump’s administration is keen to eradicate all things “woke” including reverting to Times New Roman and ditching Calibri.
According to Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s memo, the latest move against “woke” will “abolish yet another wasteful DEIA program.” Many of us that use Microsoft Word are used to typing in the Calibri typeface, a clear and attractive font. Meanwhile, that typeface is the official typeface for office communications. However, the Department of State considers the popular typeface “woke,” and wants to revert to Times New Roman.
As noted by Reuters, a cable sent to diplomats Wednesday, read, “To restore decorum and professionalism to the Department’s written work products and abolish yet another wasteful DEIA program, the Department is returning to Times New Roman as its standard typeface.”
Reportedly, between 2004 and 2023, department staffers used Times New Roman. However, in 2023, former President Joe Biden’s Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, mandated the switch to Calibri, a modern font and typeface. At the time, it was argued that those with visual disabilities could read more easily, as the font is clearer and lacking decorative flourishes. Since that time, some studies have borne this fact out. Before Times New Roman, the official typeface was Courier New, which was considered the height of modernity in the 1960s.
“This formatting standard aligns with the President’s One Voice for America’s Foreign Relations directive, underscoring the Department’s responsibility to present a unified, professional voice in all communications,” a state department spokesperson said.
“Serif typefaces remain the standard in courts, legislatures, and across federal agencies where the permanence and authority of the written record are paramount,” the spokesperson added.
Meanwhile, serif fonts have reportedly gained more popularity recently, not only in the public sector, but also private industry. However, the change, which went into effect Wednesday, has faced mixed reactions online.
Dear Marco Rubio and the State Department: How in the hell is the Calibri font “DEIA?” Rubio orders the reversion back to Times New Roman, an abomination of a font. (Arial is superior, or even Verdana).
This is more petty nonsense from the Trump Regime.https://t.co/BHhfP462OF
— Justin Gibson (@JGibsonDem) December 10, 2025
“THANK GOODNESS,” a former state department employee wrote on X. “My last three years at the state department were filled with awful serif-less fonts. return to the superior font, times new roman.”
Another X user wrote, “How in the h*ll is the Calibri font ‘DEIA?’” while rating the move “petty nonsense.”
Talking to the Independent, Lucas de Groot, who created Calibri, also expressed mixed feelings about his font being so abruptly dropped.
“The decision to abandon Calibri on the grounds of it being a so-called ‘wasteful diversity font’ is both hilarious and regrettable,” he said. “Calibri was specifically designed to enhance readability on modern computer screens and was selected by Microsoft in 2007 to replace Times New Roman as the default font in the Office suite. There were sound reasons for moving away from Times: Calibri performs exceptionally well at small sizes and on standard office monitors, whereas serif fonts like Times New Roman tend to appear more distorted.”
Since returning to office, President Donald Trump has fought to eradicate what he terms “woke” and “DEI” policies from the federal government. He describes them as “pervasive and destructive of these ideologies.”
On January 20, Donald Trump’s first day in office, he signed an executive order dubbed “Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing.” This mandated that all federal DEI programs must be shutdown.
On his second day in office, Trump signed another executive order, “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity.” The latter rescinded a previous order supportive of affirmative action.
While Trump and his administration use sarcasm to speak of the term “woke,” it actually has a far more important meaning. According to the Merriam Webster dictionary, being woke is to be “aware of and actively attentive to important facts and issues (especially issues of racial and social justice)” where it is identified as US slang.”
