‘Return To Tradition’: Calibri Font Is The Latest Casualty Of Trump Administration’s War On DEI

Last Updated:December 11, 2025, 09:06 IST

Secretary of State Marco Rubio orders US diplomats to use Times New Roman, reversing Biden-era Calibri policy, citing tradition and formality.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio (Reuters Image)

The US State Department is returning to Times New Roman and calling it a return to tradition. In a memo issued Tuesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio ordered all US diplomats and offices worldwide to use Times New Roman, 14-point, for official documents, reversing a Calibri requirement adopted under the Biden administration.

The memo, titled “Return to Tradition," said the serif typeface better reflects the “dignity, consistency, and formality" expected in government correspondence. Times New Roman had been the department standard since 2004 until a 2023 directive, issued on the recommendation of the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, switched the standard font to Calibri to address accessibility concerns.

Rubio dismissed the change as purely cosmetic, noting that accessibility-related document mediation cases did not decline after the switch and that remediation costs instead rose by $145,000, a 20% increase. “Switching to Calibri achieved nothing except the degradation of the department’s official correspondence," the memo said.

A State Department spokesperson, responding to NBC News, said serif fonts remain the norm in courts, legislatures and federal agencies “where the permanence and authority of the written record are paramount," and that aligning with that standard ensures consistent, formal communication. The spokesperson added that the formatting shift supports President Trump’s “One Voice for America’s Foreign Relations" directive to present a unified professional voice in diplomatic messaging.

The font change comes amid broader efforts by the Trump administration to roll back diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives adopted during the Biden years. Last week, the Interior Department revised its list of “fee-free days" at national parks, removing holidays such as Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Juneteenth. Earlier in the year, the administration moved to ban DEI programs across federal agencies and directed federally funded institutions, including schools, colleges and nonprofits, to eliminate DEI-related programming.

News world ‘Return To Tradition’: Calibri Font Is The Latest Casualty Of Trump Administration’s War On DEI

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