Secretary of State Marco Rubio has picked a new target in the war against wokeness, insisting the State Department revert to a pre-Joe Biden-era typeface.
The move undoes a 2023 directive from then-Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, who switched to a Calibri font to improve accessibility after 20 years of Times New Roman, on the recommendation of the department’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion.
On Tuesday, Rubio claimed the reversion offers a return to “tradition, formality, and ceremony,” in a directive sent to diplomatic outposts around the globe.
President Donald Trump’s administration has sought to undo an extensive list of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) measures introduced under and predating former President Biden.
Among them were the abolition of DEI offices and the removal of diversity criteria for hiring and firing, effectively removing mandates for inclusivity in employment. It has also sought to undo various equality-oriented grants and programs, which Rubio reportedly labeled “radical,” under the loose banner of meritocracy.
The New York Times has seen the “Action Request” memo sent to the department, titled “Return to Tradition: Times New Roman 14-Point Font Required for All Department Paper,” which reportedly sets out to “restore decorum and professionalism to the department’s written work.”
Blinken’s switch to sans-serif typeface Calibri, which is regarded as looking less cluttered on the page, was intended to reduce barriers for readers with disabilities such as dyslexia, The Times reports. Rubio claimed the move, however, had not reduced the number of “accessibility-based document remediation cases.”
His memo said, “Switching to Calibri achieved nothing except the degradation of the department’s official correspondence,” instead insisting serif typefaces are “generally perceived to connote tradition, formality and ceremony.”
It also demanded that all writing be reduced from the Blinken-mandated 15-point back to its predecessor of 14-point.
Rubio noted that serifs are used by the White House, the Supreme Court, on Air Force One’s livery, the State Department’s letterhead, and in other federal government departments.
The newspaper reports that Rubio admitted in his memo that moving over to Calibri, “was not among the department’s most illegal, immoral, radical or wasteful instances of D.E.I.A.”
A spokesperson for the State Department confirmed to the Daily Beast that the changes were being introduced, claiming they were intended to bolster credibility and dignity in official correspondence.
Serif typefaces have small flicks on the ends of letters, and are used by the Daily Beast in the body of its articles, although a sans serif is used in its headlines.
Rubio, whom Trump in 2016 derided as “Little Marco,” claimed sans serifs, which have no flicks at the ends of letters and are often associated with a more modern family of typefaces, are “informal.”
He had already abolished the office that had recommended Blinken’s move to Calibri in the first place.
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